White House Unveils Cybersecurity Legislative Proposal

On May 12, 2011, the Obama Administration transmitted a cybersecurity legislative proposal to Capitol Hill in response to Congress’ call for assistance on how best to address the cybersecurity needs of our Nation. The proposal strikes a critical balance between maintaining the government’s role and providing industry with the capacity to innovatively tackle threats to national cybersecurity. Just as importantly, it does so while providing a robust framework to protect civil liberties and privacy.

• The Administration proposal helps safeguard your personal data and enhances your right to know when it has been compromised. In addition to educating you on how to protect yourself from cyber threats with the Stop. Think. Connect. campaign, we believe organizations should inform you when your sensitive personal information may have been compromised. This notice not only helps you to protect yourself against harms like identity theft, but also incentivizes organizations to have better data security in the first place. Today, our country has a patchwork of 47 state notification laws. Our proposal simplifies and strengthens this reporting requirement and reaches all Americans.
• It helps protect our national security by addressing threats to our power grids, water systems, and other critical infrastructure. These systems are the backbone of our modern economy; many are privately owned, but all merit our support in protecting them. The Administration proposal advances the security of our increasingly “wired” critical infrastructure, strengthens the criminal penalties for hacking into the systems that control these vital resources, and clarifies the ability of companies and the government to voluntarily share information about cybersecurity threats and incidents in a privacy-protective manner. This is behavior we want and need to promote.
• It helps the U.S. government protect our federal networks, while creating stronger privacy and civil liberties protections that keep pace with technology. Since our Federal systems are under constant pressure by hackers, criminals and other threats, the government needs better tools to detect and prevent those threats. Part of cybersecurity is about finding malicious programs, and stopping their spread before they have any impact. This proposal allows the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to implement intrusion detection and prevention systems that can help speed our response to these incidents. The Administration proposal also designs a framework for protecting privacy and civil liberties that includes new oversight, reporting requirements, and annual certification to ensure that cybersecurity technologies are used for their intended purpose and nothing more.

Additional coverage:
White House Wants Tougher Penalties for Computer Breaches (NYTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/us/politics/13obama.html?ref=todayspaper

White House proposes national standards for cybersecurity (CSM)
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0512/White-House-proposes-national-standards-for-cybersecurity

WH says new cybersecurity laws needed (Politico)
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/54901.html

White House urges national standards for cyber security (LATimes)
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cyber-security-20110513,0,2634109.story