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Senate bill on cybersecurity

By Jim Hietala
Published 09/24/2009

New bill introduced in the senate "Fostering a Global Response to Cyber Attacks Act", available here.

Maybe I have a strange sense of humor, but I find this amusing. It is a nothing little piece of proposed legislation, just says that Congress has a sense that cybersecurity is bad (really? did y'all just wake up to this reality?). And, I know, let's work with other nations to fix things up. Oh, and the pin the tail on the donkey part of it lands on the Secretary of State's office to make something happen, and report to back to congress on progress within 270 days (assuming this passes).

I have no argument that cybersecurity is indeed in a sorry state, nor that we should reach out to other governments to try and address some of the issues. As things stand today, attackers from many other countries operate with zero fear of getting caught or prosecuted.

I think it's a little naive to think that this is a Secretary of State issue (nothing against or Sec State, I just think that State would need a lot of help with this issue), and that much can be accomplished in the next 3 quarters. I generally applaud the recognition that there's a problem here to be solved.

Jim

Jim Hietala

Jim Hietala, CISSP, GSEC, is Research Director and a principal of Compliance Research Group, providing research, analysis, and consulting services in the areas of compliance, risk management, and IT security. He is also the Vice President, Security for The Open Group, where he manages all security and risk management programs and standards activities.

Jim has provided research and consulting services to organizations such as SANS, The Open Group, and a number of IT security and compliance vendors. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, and he recently authored a comprehensive course on IT risk management. He participates in the SANS Analyst/Expert program, having written several research whitepapers and participated in several webcasts for SANS. He has also published numerous articles on information security, risk management, and compliance topics in publications including The ISSA Journal, Bank Accounting & Finance, Risk Factor, SC Magazine, and others.

An industry veteran, he has held leadership roles at ControlPath, Avail Networks, Alternative Technologies, eSoft, Qwest, Concentric Network, and Digital Pathways. He developed and launched the industry’s first remote access VPN service (Concentric RemoteLink) and encrypting ISDN router (at Network Express), and launched a compliance and risk management software start-up in the IT-GRC market.

He holds a B.S. in Marketing from Southern Illinois University.

Blog: www.compliancefocus.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/jim_hietala

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimhietala

Blogging focus: Compliance, Risk Management, IT Security, IT-GRC software, HIPAA, GLBA, Privacy

Jim can be reached at: jim@compliancefocus.com