A group of Democratic senators opened the 112th Congress by introducing legislation expressing “the sense of Congress” that the body should enact “bipartisan legislation to secure the United States against cyber attack,” though the measure provides few details on how to reach that goal.
Rather than creating a new cybersecurity program, S. 21, the “Cyber Security and American Cyber Competitiveness Act,” simply expresses concern about the vulnerability of critical information and computer networks to cyber attack, and outlines broad provisions that subsequent cybersecurity legislation should include. Among the recommendations, the bill expresses “the sense of Congress” that new cybersecurity legislation should protect “the resiliency of United States’ critical infrastructure and assets . . . against cyber attacks and other threats and vulnerabilities,” and improve “the capability of the United States Government and the private sector to assess cyber risk and prevent, detect, and robustly respond to cyber attacks against United States critical infrastructure.”
Last year, several congressional Democrats and Republicans agreed that the federal government needs tougher federal rules overseeing computer networks, and several different bills addressing the problem were circulated. Generally, the proposals would not have specifically targeted the water sector, but the operators of some water infrastructure included on DHS’ “prioritized critical infrastructure list” would have had to meet some minimum cybersecurity performance standards.
It is possible that more specific requirements could be inserted into S. 21 later this year, after senators have an opportunity to work out the details of a bipartisan bill behind the scenes.