Senate may go on recess without passing cyber bill

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has been an influential voice during the debate, said the voluntary program was nothing more than a “springboard” to federal regulations that would take time and money away from efforts businesses already have under way to protect their networks. Once a “government-driven ‘voluntary’ standards system is enacted,” the Chamber said on its FreeEnterprise blog, “it’s only a short hop to a mandatory one because the administration has the intent and regulatory leverage.”

The Chamber is backing legislation drafted by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., similar to legislation passed by the House in late April. But those bills are focused on the sharing of threat information between the federal government and private sector. The White House threatened to veto the House bill, however, over concerns the bill didn’t do enough to protect privacy rights.

More than just information-sharing is needed, Dempsey and Alexander said. Key to addressing the threat is the adoption of minimum security requirements that would harden critical infrastructure networks and make it more difficult to conduct successful cyberattack penetration, they said.

“Minimum standards will help ensure there is no weak link in our infrastructure,” Dempsey wrote in his letter to Rockefeller.

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