Cybersecurity Act Fails in Senate
Earlier this month, the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 – intended to “enhance the security and resiliency of the cyber and communications infrastructure of the United States” according to its sponsors – failed to pass the U.S. Senate.
And, as law firm Mintz Levin reports, “It is unlikely that cybersecurity legislation will reappear before the election.”
Colin O’Keefe of LXBN TV talked with Stewart Baker, Steptoe & Johnson partner who was the former general counsel of the National Security Agency and the first Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security, about why the bill failed and what could happen as a result.
Baker’s view? The U.S. has opened itself up to a host of vulnerabilities:
• “We could find ourselves losing, at the hands of a hostile power – and it doesn’t have to be a big one – losing access to power, to natural gas, to refineries, to water and sewage [systems].”
• “All of those things run on industrial control systems that were never secured… Foreign governments seek that vulnerability … and will use it to attack us.”
• “We could find ourselves at a big disadvantage, hurt at home … in a way we haven’t been since, well since Pearl Harbor.”
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Read the updates:
• Cybersecurity Act of 2012 Fails in Senate — ”A moment of disappointment…” - Mintz Levin
• When cyber-threat protection and privacy concerns collide – McAfee & Taft
• Cyber Legislation Outlook: What Companies Should Monitor as Congress Considers Cybersecurity Legislation - McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP
• Cybersecurity Policy Developments: Pending Legislative Action in the House; China as a Network Security Concern - Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
• House Passes Cyber Intelligence Sharing Bill With Substantial Industry Support, But Veto Threat Looms - Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
• Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act Bill Passes House - Scott & Scott, LLP
• EPIC Urges Senate to Safeguard FOIA for Cybersecurity - Electronic Privacy Information Center
• Cybersecurity Act of 2012 Introduced - Morgan Lewis
• Legislative Update – Cybersecurity - Mintz Levin
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