Chamber to weigh in on latest cybersecurity draft

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is set to meet with Sen. Jon Kyl and his staff on Wednesday to discuss cybersecurity legislation and the Arizona Republican’s efforts to find middle ground on provisions that apply to critical infrastructure. 

The powerful business lobby panned an earlier version of a draft compromise that was prepared last month by staffers for Kyl and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), arguing that it took too much of a regulatory approach. The two senators are spearheading an effort to find a compromise on a controversial measure in Sen. Joe Lieberman's (I-Conn.) cybersecurity bill that would require critical infrastructure operators to meet a set of security standards. 

The meeting will give the Chamber an opportunity to give a thumbs up or down to the latest version of the framework. Winning the support of the powerful lobby could help break the Senate's stalemate on cybersecurity before the legislative clock runs out. 

A group of Senate Republicans led by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) have opposed the critical infrastructure measures in Lieberman’s bill and introduced a rival measure, the SECURE IT Act, that focuses on improving information sharing between government and industry about cyberthreats. 

Kyl and Whitehouse have been trying to bridge the differences between the two pieces of legislation and get both parties on board with an approach to spur critical infrastructure operators — such as telecommunications networks, water systems and transportation networks — to better secure their computer systems.

“We look forward to working with lawmakers and staff and will be advocating that any legislation reflects the effective and nonregulatory approaches supported by the Chamber in the SECURE IT bill and CISPA [Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act],” a spokesman for the Chamber said. 

But it will be tough to get the business lobby onboard with any new set of cybersecurity regulations. The Chamber argued the critical infrastructure provisions in Lieberman’s bill would add another layer of bureaucracy over existing security structures and turn industry’s focus from securing their systems to complying with federal rules.

Lieberman, along with Senate Democrats, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and the White House, have said security mandates are needed to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure from escalating cybersecurity threats.