Cyber Debate Heats Up with Executive Order, Federal Legislation and EU Proposal
Cybersecurity has generated a lot of attention for several years, but an Executive Order (EO) by President Obama and proposals on the Hill and in Europe have officially set heavy policy discussion in motion for 2013 and beyond.
Last week, President Obama called-out cybersecurity as a priority in his State of the Union Address on Tuesday, announcing the release of the much anticipated Executive Order (EO) on cybersecurity. The EO is focused specifically on critical infrastructure protection, calling for a NIST-led multistakeholder process to identify existing consensus standards, practices and procedures that can become the basis of a voluntary “Cybersecurity Framework.” In announcing the EO and corresponding guidance and initiatives, the President has labeled the EO as a “down payment” for legislation, which in his view is still very necessary to address many of the key cybersecurity priorities, most notably improving information sharing from companies to the government, and for creating incentives for broad adoption of the voluntary cybersecurity framework. SIIA issued a statement in response commending the President for prioritizing cybersecurity, seeking to preserve innovation and reiterating the need to avoid applying regulations around what will be developed as a voluntary framework.
Also last week, Reps. Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Dutch Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) reintroduced the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), bipartisan cybersecurity legislation to enhance sharing of cyber threat information between the public and private sectors. Last year CISPA received more than 100 bipartisan cosponsors and was passed by the House with strong support. In response, SIIA joined with other leading trade associations in support this legislation. The House Intelligence Committee followed-up with a hearing on the legislation Thursday.
These developments in DC last week came on the heels of the European Commission (EC) publishing a cybersecurity strategy and a draft directive on network and information security (NIS). In response, SIIA issued a statement expressing concern that the proposal is too prescriptive and overly broad.
New Legislation Supports Technology Readiness for Digital Learning and Online Assessment
U.S. Representative George Miller (CA) recentlyintroduced“The Transforming Education Through Technology Act” (H.R. 521), legislation to help ensure the nation’s elementary and secondary schools have access to the technology infrastructure, applications and professional support needed for digital learning and online assessment. Congressman Miller is Ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Education & the Workforce Committee, coauthor of the No Child Left Behind Act, and was recently recognized for his leadership in education technology. In response to the bill’s introduction, SIIA issued a statement of support of the legislation as an important step forward in providing our students and educators with the technology supports they need for success in school and in the workplace. SIIA also joined with a coalition of organizations endorsing the bill, representing K-12 teachers, technology officers, administrators and high-tech companies. Read more on SIIA’s Digital Discourse Blog.
Obama on Patent Reform: We’re Not Done Yet, Patent Trolls Need to be Reined In
Last week, President Obama took the opportunity in a public video chat to urge for more work to be done to stop abusive patent lawsuits. Noting that recent patent reform efforts were “only a partial fix to the patent troll problem,” President Obama went on to say that “there’s a delicate balance between protecting intellectual property and making sure people aren’t ruined financially by patent trolls. What we need to do is pull together additional stakeholders and see if we can build some additional consensus on smarter patent laws.” Read more on SIIA’s Digital Discourse blog.
SIIA’s CloudGov Conference Features Lively Discussion on Emerging Federal IT Issues
SIIA’s Cloud/GOV 2013 conference held last week played to a packed house of federal IT employees, contractors, IT companies and policymakers. Event attendees were treated to keynote addresses from Federal CIO Steve VanRoekel, DOD DCIO Dave DeVries, and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). They also heard a variety of perspectives on topics ranging from how the convergence of cloud and data analytics can make government more effective, to the latest on FedRAMP, and how to choose the right cloud solution. Making news was the announcement by GSAs Kathy Conrad that there is an RFI in the works to look at privatizing the management of the FedRAMP 3PAOs. GCN has a good roundup on the FedRAMP discussion, and video of the event is available online for those that missed it.
David LeDuc is Senior Director, Public Policy at SIIA. He focuses on e-commerce, privacy, cyber security, cloud computing, open standards, e-government and information policy. Follow the SIIA public policy team on Twitter at @SIIAPubPolicy.