With an inflexible deadline, Congress confronts a catastrophic cyber info-sharing lapse that may essentially derail the digital defense backbone of America, as lawmakers grapple to renew the historic Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act before it devastatingly expires at the end of the month and may well fall apart its lifeline of pivotal exchanges of threat intelligence between government and the private sector.
Critical legislation on cyberspace is progressing in the House committee
According to Federal News Network, the House Homeland Security Committee would like to reauthorize and reform the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015, which will run out of time at the end of this month. On Wednesday, the committee approved a bill to put the law on hold for another 10 years. It would also revise the law to reflect progress in artificial intelligence and mandate the Department of Homeland Security to do more to address new cyber threats.
CyberScoop reported that a House panel is moving a bill to reauthorize a key law providing information sharing on cyber threats, as well as a massively funded state and local cyber grant program, both of which are expiring toward the end of this month. The administration officials and nominees of the Trump administration, cybersecurity organizations, and experts have expressed their support for renewing both of them as they approach their respective lapses.
AI security updates are found in a ten-year extension
Cybersecurity and Information Sharing Act of 2015 has offered legal immunity to the private sector to exchange threat information with the federal government and among businesses and organizations. It would be reauthorised under the Widespread Information Management for the Welfare of Infrastructure and Government Act, which the panel approved 25-0, updated.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino, N.Y., the chairman of the committee and lead sponsor of the re-up legislation, said: “Reauthorizing this law and making this framework relevant before it runs out is critical to maintaining our cyber resilience. The original bill, he said, transformed the cybersecurity picture permanently and positively.
The billion-dollar grant program is under a renewal deadline
In a 22-1 vote, the panel voted in favor of the Protecting Information by Local Leaders for Agency Resilience Act, which would renew the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program to last 10 more years. The initiative has given out 1billion dollars to assist state and local governments in enhancing their online security measures against more sophisticated attacks.
The future of the Senate pathway is doubtful due to politics
The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., argued that many local governments have a long way to go before they are ready to handle cyberattacks by their enemies, such as the Chinese Communist Party. He told him that he generally wished Washington would do less, but that the federal government may have to pay the bill someday anyway, unless it chips in to make the state and local governments tighten their belts.
Garbarino reported a productive meeting on Tuesday evening with his Senate colleague, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., regarding the way forward on the bill. GOP lawmakers, including Paul, have expressed a desire to renew the 2015 law with some form of language to bar the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency from censoring speech, despite agency officials in the past saying they have never censored anyone.
The immediate congressional advocacy to reenact these much-needed cybersecurity initiatives demonstrates the increasing awareness that America’s entire digital infrastructure is under more threat than ever, and that is something that ought to be sustained with federal funding and coordination. As the expiration time approaches and Senate approval remains uncertain, the next few weeks will determine whether important cyber defense systems will be allowed to safeguard the country’s most vulnerable systems and neighborhoods.