This Week in Tech: Senate shifts focus to cybersecurity

With online piracy legislation off the agenda, cybersecurity has become the tech issue du jour in the Senate.

The upper chamber is expected to take up comprehensive cybersecurity legislation this week after years of work by the Homeland Security and Commerce committees and the relevant committee heads.

The resulting legislation takes a light-touch approach to regulating network security at critical infrastructure providers in order to garner support from both lawmakers and industry.

The legislation would task the Department of Homeland Security with ensuring that firms crucial to the nation's economic and physical security take adequate precautions to safeguard their systems, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology would help determine best practices and standards with input from industry.

The regulations would hit sectors differently, and tech observers are tuned in to see what sort of requirements would be placed on the communications and telecom industries.

But late resistance from federal technology contractors is threatening to undermine the legislation, with some warning the regulations would allow the government to step in if contractors' security precautions are found to be lacking.

Opposition comes from both firms that sell security services to the government, as well as IT and hardware firms facing new security requirements.

On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law will hold a hearing on the Video Privacy Protection Act featuring representatives from Netflix and the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

The law, passed in 1988, bans video providers from sharing customers' rental histories without their written consent. Netflix contends the law is an impediment to the voluntary sharing of users' viewing history over social networks.

The Federal Communications Commission's January open meeting on Tuesday will focus on waste and abuse in the Lifeline and Link Up programs, which subsidize telephone service for low-income consumers.

The proposed changes are intended to root out fraud in the program and transition some of its funds to expanding broadband Internet access.

Also Tuesday, the Wireless Innovation Alliance and New America Foundation will host a forum at the Russell Senate Office Building on the need to preserve unlicensed spectrum.

House Republicans have shown a strong resistance to freeing up more airwaves for unlicensed use due to the current budgetary climate. Speakers will include Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), along with former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt.

---