Cyber security legislation to be introduced later this year by two senators has five basic principles, including giving the Department of Homeland Security the backing and personnel needed to monitor federal civilian networks and defend against attacks, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I/D-Conn.) said on Friday.
Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), ranking member of the panel, will introduce the new legislation.
The other principles in the forthcoming bill are instituting a Senate-confirmed cyber security coordinator in the White House, ensuring that DHS takes a risk-based approach to securing the nation’s critical infrastructure, including offering voluntary guidance for less critical companies, creating new government acquisition policies and practices to strengthen the security of government systems, and addressing the challenges in hiring, retaining and training cyber security personnel in the federal government.
Lieberman said the country is currently “well behind the curve” in protecting its assets from cyber threats, noting that intrusions into U.S. government computers were up 40 percent last year. He praised the creation of a new DHS cyber security center that was officially opened on Friday, the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, along with new hiring authority recently obtained by the government to bypass routine rules to compete for cyber security professionals, as steps that “will help transform the DHS into the robust cyber security organization it needs to become.”
Lieberman said he would like input from the private sector on his legislation before it is introduced.