ABA supports cybersecurity bill
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The ABA is supporting a bill that fosters collaboration between state, local and federal agencies to battle cyber threats.
On Tuesday, the ABA sent a letter (PDF) supporting the bill, the Cyber Preparedness Act of 2017, to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
The bill, H.R. 584, has already passed the House “in an overwhelmingly bipartisan manner,” the ABA letter says. The bill requires a federal fusion center that gathers threat-related information to provide state and local fusion centers with expertise on cybersecurity resources. It also provides funds for state and local governments to prepare for and respond to cybersecurity risks.
The bill also expresses the sense of Congress that the Department of Homeland Security should share actionable information about cyber threats in an unclassified form to foster quick dissemination.
“We believe these measures will increase our ability to successfully protect our nation’s cyber infrastructure,” the ABA letter says.
U.S. Rep. Dan Donovan, R-N.Y., sponsor of the bill, first introduced a cybersecurity preparedness bill in 2016. The bill’s provisions “might sound mundane, but defending against cyber-attack requires attention to every detail,” he said in a June 2016 press release.
