Rep McCaul Introducing Bill to Boost Cyber Threat Liability Protections

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) is introducing a draft of new cybersecurity legislation that would make it easier for private sector companies to share cyber threat information with the government and with each other. Chairman McCaul said that "criminals, hacktivists, terrorists, and nation-states have managed to exploit our networks by staying at the cutting edge of technology. In the meantime, our defenses have lagged behind." To help catch up, Chairman McCaul said the committee would try and mark the new bill up within the next few weeks and take it to the House floor in April, where he promised to be "forward-leaning" and "reach across the aisle" to get a bill passed.

He said the bill will provide for the voluntary exchange of “government-to-private” and “private-to-private” threat information, and would provide liability protection for companies who monitor their information systems and take measures to defend them from attack. Chairman McCaul says the bill would insure that the sharing is done without compromising customers' private information. He said that would mean that when breach information is shared, it will be "thoroughly scrubbed [of] personal information."