Senators Clash Over Cybersecurity Legislation‎

Dissatisfied with a cybersecurity bill introduced earlier this month in the Senate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said late last week that he and other senators would introduce alternative legislation.

The bipartisan Cybersecurity Act of 2012 first was introduced Tuesday, Feb. 14, by Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee; Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Maine; Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Select Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Ca.

The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 would create a public-private partnership to secure critical infrastructure systems that, if compromised, could result in lives lost and disruption to life-sustaining services. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security would have the power to create a framework for securing critical private-sector infrastructure.

“I can’t think of a more urgent issue facing this country. Hackers are stealing information from Fortune 500 companies, breaking into the networks of our government and security agencies and toying with the networks that power our economy,” Rockefeller said in a press release. “The new frontier in the war against terrorists is being fought online and this bill will level the playing field.”

But the same day Rockefeller and his colleagues unveiled their bill, a group of Republican senators wrote to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., saying the process was too rushed. The dissenters included Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and McCain. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., quickly joined them.

McConnell said, according to Politico, that the bill could do more harm than good. “Rather than rush into a massive bill that could have unintended consequences and may not address the problems it is supposed to, the American people would be better served by holding hearings and a markup so that members of both parties can make informed decisions about cybersecurity legislation,” he said.


Seen full article at: http://www.govtech.com/security/Senators-Clash-Over-Cybersecurity-Legislation.html