Senate intelligence panel leaders draft cybersecurity legislation

Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee are drafting cybersecurity legislation that would enable companies to share threat data with federal agencies without fear of getting sued, officials said.

Efforts to move comprehensive legislation in this area have failed in recent years, with a bill to establish security standards and ease data sharing going down to defeat in 2012. Recent disclosures about ties between the National Security Agency and telecommunications firms have made it even more difficult to advance legislation that would call for the sharing of data between the government and the private sector. The new, 39-page draft bill, written by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), chairman of the intelligence committee, and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), the ranking Republican on the committee, states that no lawsuit may be brought against a company for sharing threat data with “any other entity or the federal government” to prevent, investigate or mitigate a cyberattack.