Republicans Mary Bono Mack of California and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee introduced a House version of cybersecurity legislation championed by John McCain of Arizona and other senior Senate Republicans on Tuesday. The SECURE IT Act (HR4263) mirrors the Senate legislation of the same name (S 2151) by aiming to improve information sharing between the government and private sector about cybersecurity threats and attacks. The bill also updates the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), which governs how the federal government secures its systems, increases the penalties for cybercrimes and encourages advanced cybersecurity research at agencies like the National Science Foundation. The bill joins several cybersecurity efforts in the House, which are primarily focused on information sharing and reducing liability for companies that take steps to prevent attacks.
Like the Senate bill, the legislation omits any new security regulations for private firms that provide critical infrastructure, such as the communications and power grids. Groups representing those sectors have been lobbying fiercely against the regulations proposed in the Lieberman-Collins-Rockefeller cybersecurity bill (S 2105), which is championed by Senate leadership and the White House. Cybersecurity experts argue any bill that doesn't address critical infrastructure won't do enough to mitigate the threat of catastrophic attack, and are worried the Lieberman bill already has too many loopholes to allow companies to escape its requirements. The two sides remain far apart on a compromise, with Democrats insisting on including a provision covering critical infrastructure, and Republicans standing firmly against the prospect of new regulations.
Commerce Department Proposes Selling Government Spectrum: A report (PDF) released Tuesday by the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration shows it is possible to re-purpose the entire 1755-1850 MHz band of spectrum for use by commercial wireless companies, potentially freeing up 95 MHz of valuable spectrum for mobile broadband. The spectrum is currently being used by over 20 federal agencies including the Department of Defense and all the branches of the military. The report notes that relocating federal users could take years, which is why Commerce proposes federal agencies and commercial users share the spectrum. NTIA Administrator Lawrence Strickling said unless the entire band is re-purposed, the government won't be able to meet its goal to free up 500 MHz of wireless spectrum for wireless companies in the next ten years.