Tech industry pushes on cybersecurity reforms

The head of an influential technology industry lobbying group wrote to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Friday pressing him to pass cybersecurity legislation before breaking at the end of September.

Talks in the Senate have reached a standstill as stakeholders wait for Reid to take action to combine dozens of competing pieces of cybersecurity legislation. There is still no apparent resolution to the turf battle over which government agency should have the authority to regulate private sector cybersecurity.

TechAmerica president Phil Bond told Reid that while the industry still supports comprehensive legislation, they would like to see several popular reforms enacted if no comprehensive bill looks likely to pass in the near future.

“TechAmerica supports the concept of comprehensive cyber security reform, but the perfect must not become the enemy of the good," Bond wrote. "In the event that comprehensive action proves elusive, we would prefer to achieve meaningful victories in the effort to better protect our nation in cyberspace while the opportunity is before us."

Specifically TechAmerica pushed for the passage of the Data Breach and Security Notification Act introduced by Sens. Mary Pryor (D-Ark.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) last month. Under the bill, businesses would have to notify customers within 60 days if their data has been breached. They would also have to provide two years of free consumer credit reports to those impacted.

The group also supports the Information Technology Investment Oversight Enhancement and Waste Prevention Act of 2009 introduced by Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.) because it contains reform of the Federal Information Security Management Act, which is considered outdated and overly focused on compliance rather than active monitoring of networks. The House passed FISMA reform in May as part of the defense authorization act.

TechAmerica also wrote in support of additional investments in cybersecurity research and development, praising Sens. Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) for including it in their comprehensive cybersecurity bill.