Any Cybersecurity Bill is Better than No Bill, Senate panel Told

A panel of security experts urged Congress to do something—anything—to combat cyberthreats to the United States.

The panel of witnesses before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee had specific recommendations, but with a nearly unified voice they all agreed that moving ahead with any current legislative proposals is better than doing nothing. “If we don’t act now, I can assure you that whatever comes after something bad happens will be much more draconian and not as constructive as it could be,” Frank Cilluffo, director of George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute, told the committee. Former National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden said all the proposals on the table, including standards, information sharing between businesses and government, and a potential increased role for U.S. intelligence agencies, should be enacted. Any potential problems can be ironed out later, he said. “I’d do them all. And I would keep an open mind a adjust fire in a year or two.”