Tomorrow, a House subcommittee will hold what its chairman, Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) is calling an “aggressive review” of several recent cyberthreats including supply chain vulnerability and botnet attacks. Several bills are being drafted in both chambers of Congress (MMR reported today on a Senate bill) and there seems to be a bipartisan approach to get something done before the election so that maybe the public could see Congress a bit more favorably than the dog-poop-on-shoe status it currently holds.
But Hillicon Valley gives a reality check that nothing in Congress is ever easy:
Cracks have started to emerge in the consensus, with industry and GOP lawmakers expressing resistance to a compromise forged between the Senate Commerce and Homeland Security committees. That legislation would impose regulatory requirements on companies that are deemed critical infrastructure.
Bob Dix, the vice president of government affairs and critical infrastructure for Juniper Networks, is one of the witnesses for Wednesday’s hearing. He recently told The Hill that the cybersecurity compromise would give the government too much power over contractors who fail to meet security standards.
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