Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a former member of the Intelligence Committee who chaired the committee’s 2010 Cyber Task Force, released the statement below today regarding legislation introduced in the Senate to safeguard our nation from cyber attacks. The final proposed bill – the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 – includes Whitehouse’s Cyber Security Public Awareness Act, bipartisan legislation he introduced with Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) last year.
“Today, with the introduction of this bill, the Senate took an important step toward addressing an issue that concerns our national security, our economic well-being, the safety of our families, and our privacy. This legislation will help us prevent cyber attacks by providing tools to protect government information systems and critical infrastructure, and by improving public access to information on cyber attacks thanks to its inclusion of my Cyber Security Public Awareness Act. The more we know about cyber threats, the better our ability to prepare for – and potentially stop – attacks.
“I thank Senators Lieberman, Collins, and Rockefeller, and Majority Leader Reid, for their hard work on this issue, and I look forward to working with them as the bill moves to the Senate floor to ensure that it protects security and privacy.”
In addition to chairing the Cyber Task Force, Whitehouse has hosted a series of bipartisan Senate discussion groups on cyber issues with experts from the government and private sector.
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