Legislation from U.S. Sens. Gary Peters D-MI) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) would renew critical cybersecurity provisions that expired on Sept. 30.
Peters, the ranking member of the House Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Rounds said the bill, Protecting America from Cyber Threats, would reauthorize a law that enables private companies to voluntarily share cybersecurity threat indicators with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Officials said the collaborate effort that resulted from the law, which has been in place for a decade, has helped prevent data breaches, protect personal information, and strengthen the federal government’s ability to respond to cyberattacks from foreign adversaries and criminal networks.
“This bipartisan bill renews a proven framework that has helped defend critical networks at our hospitals, financial systems, and energy grids from cyberattacks for a decade,” Peters said. “We must quickly renew these longstanding cybersecurity protections that encourage companies to voluntarily share information about cybersecurity threats with the federal government to ensure we are prepared to defend our national and economy security against relentless attacks from cybercriminals and foreign adversaries.”
The legislation builds on a 2015 bipartisan law that helped address cyberattacks like SolarWinds, Volt Typhoon and Salt Typhoon, and has in the past alerted federal agencies of ongoing attacks from foreign countries like Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, to name a few. Officials said the legislation includes privacy protections that would protect personally identifiable information (PII) from being included in threat information reports.
“The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 has been instrumental in strengthening our nation’s cyber defenses by enabling critical information sharing between the private sector and government,” Rounds said. = “The lapse in this legislation due to the government shutdown leaves our nation vulnerable to cyber attacks. Our legislation would extend these provisions for an additional 10 years.”