Rep. Watson: Create 'Office for Cyberspace'

Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.) is urging her congressional colleagues to establish a new "Office for Cyberspace" to address the federal government's information security lapses.

The proposed office would serve as the principal hub for "coordinating issues relating to achieving an assured, reliable, secure, and survivable information infrastructure and related capabilities for the Federal Government," according to the bill Watson introduced on Monday.

A Senate-confirmed director would lead that office, which itself would be supported by a Federal Cybersecurity Practice Board, the bill specifies.

Comprising that panel would be members of the Office of Management and Budget, Defense Department and other civilian and law enforcement agencies, according to Watson's legislation, which has since been referred to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for further consideration.

However, Watson's bill is one of many recent congressional efforts to bolster federal IT security in the wake of a series of high-profile cyberattacks earlier this year.

The House passed a cybersecurity bill in the opening days of February that would requre the president to conduct an agency-by-agency assessment of federal network preparedness. But while the bill easily cleared the lower chamber, it encountered some opposition in the Senate, where lawmakers seemed to prefer a tougher, more actionable cybersecurity bill.

Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) have since offered their more comprehensive alternative, which would create a cybersecurity post not too unlike the office Watson proposed Monday and devote new federal dollars to Web security programs. But it remains unclear whether other lawmakers in either the Hour or Senate still share their appetite for robust cybersecurity reform.

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