There appears to be some real movement on the Hill for cybersecurity legislation that will make it easier for private companies, such as cable ISPs, to share cyber threat information with each other and the government.
Such legislation is overdue and has been caught up by the partisan—as well as ideological—divides in Congress that are hardly confined to this issue.
There are legitimate differences over how to go about sharing threat info in real time, how to protect companies from liability for sharing information with each other, and on how best to protect critical infrastructure and information privacy.
But everyone, and we mean everyone, agrees that something must be done to better protect our networks and information.
And this isn’t just about preventing the next Sony email hack, which was bad enough, but about protecting systems that affect billions if not trillions of dollars in economic value, as well as our national security.
So, to make it clear, what we are saying is that since coming up with legislation to combat cyber threats is very important, and since both parties agree it is very important, there is no excuse for letting entrenched positions on either side prevent a meeting of the minds.
We urge legislators to come together and pass a bill ASAP, but as Adm. James Barnett, former head of the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau said, passage of that legislation will only be the beginning. Cyber security is not a one and done.
