Tony Romm wrote for Politico on upcoming Congressional hearings that mark “lawmaker’s official return to legislation fortifying the country’s digital defenses.” We’re going to see mostly the same talking points (privacy vs. security, mandatory cybersecurity standards vs. incentives & flexible business models & proactive cybersecurity approaches, and the phrase “information-sharing” repeated 50 million times), but Romm believes that the cybersecurity EO may be a catalyst for a different result.
Up first was supposed to be a House Homeland Security Committee hearing, where Rep. McCaul promised to look at “how Congress can build upon the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to prevent cyberattacks in a way that promotes U.S. commerce, while not hindering its expansion.” Romm noted the hearing was canceled and has not been rescheduled yet.
On another front, Romm notes that Reps. Rogers and Ruppersberger will be pushing CISPA towards markup.
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The aforementioned Rep. Michael McCaul wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal that discusses how we need to harden our defenses against cyberwarfare. Pretty standard op-ed, nothing new:
[L]egislation that encourages participation by streamlining processes and reducing legal uncertainty for industry is necessary to help the public and private sectors be more responsive and accountable. In the process, care must be taken to protect Americans’ privacy and civil liberties.
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The ACLU’s Robyn Greene weighed in on where the USG should house an information sharing program.
Her message will be unequivocal: any new cybersecurity information sharing program must be housed in a civilian agency. Housing it in a military agency like the NSA would create significant new threats to Americans’ privacy, and must be avoided.
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