[ISN] House bill would give DHS authority over private sector networks

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/129879-house-bill-would-give-dhs-authority-over-private-sector-networks

By Gautham Nagesh 
Hillicon Valley
11/18/10 

A new bill unveiled Wednesday by House Homeland Security chairman Bennie 
Thompson (D-Miss.) would give the Department of Homeland Security the 
authority to enforce federal cybersecurity standards on private sector 
companies deemed critical to national security.

The Homeland Security Cyber and Physical Infrastructure Protection Act 
of 2010 authorizes DHS to establish and enforce risk and 
performance-based cybersecurity standards on federal agencies and 
private sector companies consider part of the country's critical 
infrastructure. Such firms include utilities, communications providers 
and financial institutions.

The legislation is co-sponsored by Reps. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and 
Yvette Clark (D-N.Y.). It will also create a new Cybersecurity 
Compliance Division within DHS that would make sure organizations comply 
with the new security regulations. The lawmakers argue DHS has not had 
sufficient authority or resources to fulfill its mission as the lead 
federal agency for cyversecurity.

“From a security and good-government standpoint, the way to deliver 
better cybersecurity is to leverage, modify, and enhance existing 
structures and efforts, rather than make wholesale bureaucratic 
changes," Thompson said in a statement. "This bill will make our Nation 
more secure and better positions DHS – the ‘focal point for the security 
of cyberspace’ – to fulfill its critical homeland security mission.”

[...]


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