President Obama proposes ‘Enabling Cybersecurity Information Sharing’ legislation

President Obama has made an updated proposal to introduce legislation to require US organizations to share information about cyber attacks.

The ‘Enabling Cybersecurity Information Sharing’ legislative proposal will encourage the private sector to share appropriate cyber threat information with the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC); which will then share it in as close to real-time as practicable with relevant federal agencies and with private sector-developed and operated Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations (ISAOs). Targeted liability protection will be provided for companies that share information with these entities.

The legislation will also encourage the formation of the Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations and will require private entities to comply with various privacy restrictions, such as removing unnecessary personal information and taking measures to protect any personal information that must be shared in order to qualify for liability protection.

More details can be found here.

Responses to President Obama’s proposal:

Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., SIFMA president and CEO:
"Cybersecurity is a top priority for the financial services industry, which is dedicating significant resources to protect the integrity of the financial markets and the millions of people who use financial services every day. Cyber attacks are increasingly a major threat to national security and the US financial system. We commend the Administration for their focus on this critically important issue and agree that a robust partnership between the private sector and government is the most effective way to mitigate cyber threats. We have long encouraged Congress to pass cybersecurity legislation that strengthens our nation's cyber defenses by codifying liability protections that promote enhanced information sharing between the industry and government while balancing the need for important privacy protections for individuals. The industry remains committed to doing everything it can to prepare for and defend against a cyber attack."

TK Keanini, CTO, Lancope:
"This is a good step in the right direction but a baby step nonetheless. The EU data breach proposal is much more complete as they have not only more timely reporting, but also meaningful penalties that are painful enough to change the behaviour of organizations. The US desperately needed a national policy as the state by state made no sense. As this proposal evolves we also need to call out details on encryption like they do in the EU proposal because data protection is best done via cryptography and we need to drive better habits in that realm."

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•Date: 14th January 2015 • US •Type: Article • Topic: ISM

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