DHS Sec Napolitano backs Senate cybersecurity bill, industry reporting requirement

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told lawmakers the White House approves of new Senate computer security legislation that would require critical sectors to report network intrusions to the government.

The endorsement came during a House hearing, the day before she was slated to testify on the measure, S. 2105, before its authors on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The 205-page package -- a compromise bill among numerous competing measures -- would grant the federal government the power to handle penetrations into private networks. "The administration supports the bill that was introduced in the Senate this week," Sec Napolitano said during a House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on the department's funding request for fiscal 2013.