Sen. Rockefeller presses Congress to pass cybersecurity legislation

By Gautham Nagesh - 01/31/12 03:54 PM ET

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) pressed his colleagues on Tuesday to pass comprehensive cybersecurity legislation immediately.

Rockefeller has worked with Senate Homeland Security Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and ranking member Susan Collins (R-Maine) to craft a bipartisan compromise that would task the Department of Homeland Security with ensuring critical infrastructure firms take measures to safeguard their networks.

“The threat posed by cyber attacks is greater than ever, and it’s a threat not just to companies like Sony or Google but also to the nation’s infrastructure and the government itself,” Rockefeller said at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

“Today’s cyber criminals have the ability to interrupt life-sustaining services, cause catastrophic economic damage, or severely degrade the networks our defense and intelligence agencies rely on. Congress needs to act on comprehensive cybersecurity legislation immediately."

The Senate is expected to begin debate on the Rockefeller-Lieberman-Collins proposal in the coming days after spending years raising awareness and forging bipartisan agreement on the issue. But late resistance from federal IT contractors and some Republicans has jeopardized the success of the effort.

One expert predicted concerns about regulatory overreach recently articulated by Juniper Networks would be enough to scuttle the bill. If not, the expert said the House is still unlikely to pass sweeping new federal network security regulations in an election year.

The House has begun movement on cybersecurity legislation of its own in recent months, focused mostly on incentives for information sharing between the public and private sectors. The leaders of the effort are Reps. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), who have stuck to the bipartisan tone.

But experts warn that voluntary incentives alone won't be enough to compel firms to take adequate security measures. The White House and Senate plan echo that approach, but vary on the means of ensuring firms comply. IT firms contend cost is the reason firms don't take more action on security.