Financial, energy sectors call for cyber information-sharing legislation

Two representatives from the financial and energy sectors called on Congress to pass legislation that would increase the flow of data shared between the government and industry about cyber threats.

"At the end of the day, we need to know what's going on and what's affecting us," said Anish Bhimani, chief information risk officer of JPMorgan Chase, who testified on behalf of the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center at a House hearing. Bhimani told members of the House Homeland Security Committee that companies need to receive data from the government about online threats in a timely manner so they can thwart cyberattacks in real time. "What we care most about is that we're able to receive actionable, timely information from whoever has it," he said. Gary Hayes, chief information officer of CenterPoint Energy, said cybersecurity legislation needs to be flexible enough so it can apply to both small and large businesses. "One size fits all is not appropriate," he said.