Digital Discourse / Archives for Ken Wasch

SIIA Applauds Passage of Cybersecurity Legislation in House

April 26, 2012 By Ken Wasch Leave a Comment

SIIA commends today’s House passage of the Cybersecurity Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA, H.R. 3523). With cyber threats more sophisticated and targeted than ever, and growing at an unprecedented rate, now is the time to act on critical cybersecurity legislative priorities. We believe the top priority is to establish a framework that enables the public and private sectors to work together in sharing information on known threats and vulnerabilities. H.R. 3523 would accomplish the vital objective of early detection and notification of cybersecurity threats. This is the most critical component of preventing and mitigating attacks, and will increase security across the board.

As important as this bill is, information sharing is not alone enough to protect the nation’s cyber threats. SIIA continues to support quick passage of other key measures before the House to address the nation’s most pressing cybersecurity challenges, while preserving innovation. These measures include:

• HR 4257 to reform of Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA),
• HR 2096 and HR 3834 to provide for additional cybersecurity R&D.

A strong and responsive cybersecurity system that doesn’t add burdensome regulation will make everyone more secure and keep our country at the forefront of tech innovation.

Ken WaschKen Wasch is President of SIIA.

Filed Under: Policy, Policy - Cybersecurity Tagged With: ,

SIIA Joins Call for Narrow, Bipartisan Cybersecurity Legislation

April 18, 2012 By Ken Wasch Leave a Comment

SIIA today announced its endorsement of three bipartisan measures to make improvements to cybersecurity. SIIA joined with the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) and other trade associations representing a broad range of U.S. companies in a letter to Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nany Pelosi supporting this major national security priority. The measures seek to bring to bear the resources of U.S. companies to protect personal information.

SIIA urges Congress to pass legislation on the following issues that would immediately enhance our cybersecurity posture:

• Improved information sharing through HR 3523;
• Reform of Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) through HR 4257;
• Additional cybersecurity R&D through HR 2096 and HR 3834.

Passing these bipartisan measures, which are expected to be taken up in the House of Representatives next week, will improve public and private cybersecurity infrastructure without adding unnecessary expense or bureaucracy.

SIIA has long called for a measured, collaborative approach to cybersecurity legislation in order to protect consumers while allowing companies to continue to innovate. These bills tackle important security issues without adding excessive regulation or bureaucracy that could stifle American technology leadership. They will allow industry to work closely with government to ensure aggressive security that is flexible enough to keep up with the speed and sophistication of today’s cyber attacks.

Ken WaschKen Wasch is President of SIIA.

Filed Under: Policy, Policy - Cybersecurity Tagged With:

SIIA Signs on to Industry Letter Opposing India’s New Protectionist Procurement Rule

March 6, 2012 By Ken Wasch Leave a Comment

SIIA strongly opposes the new procurement rule that imposes a 30% domestic content requirement on an ill-defined range of electronic products and services.  It is bad enough that the rule explicitly targets laptops and computers, but it could also extend to any software, application or electronic content that the Indian government might deem to be covered.  SIIA’s members in the software and digital content industries are deeply concerned by this development and urge the U.S. government to engage strongly with the government of India to rollback this protectionist policy.  Allowing the policy to stand not only increases the risk that India will extend it to other sectors, but also that other countries will seek to imitate it.

Katie CarlsonKen Wasch is President of SIIA.

Filed Under: Policy Tagged With: ,

SIIA Applauds White House Privacy Recommendations

February 23, 2012 By Ken Wasch Leave a Comment

SIIA today welcomed the release of the White House’s report on privacy. In its report, the White House proposes that privacy codes of conduct be developed through a multi-stakeholder process that involves representatives from industry sectors, civil society, and representatives of other governments. The Department of Commerce would convene these discussions and act as a facilitator to ensure progress.

Voluntary, industry-specific privacy guidelines will improve privacy while maintaining the incentive and opportunity for industry participants to bring new information products and services to the public. Relying on a regulatory agency to come up with one-size-fits-all privacy rules will inhibit innovation and won’t lead to the most effective privacy protection for the public. The White House has developed a forward-looking, effective approach to improving privacy.

We simply don’t need legislation to develop privacy standards that work. The general principles of fair information practice are well known and have been articulated anew in the report. These principles can be made more specific through industry sector codes of conduct, and compliance can be assured through the existing authority of the Federal Trade Commission.

SIIA cannot endorse this proposal as a legislative initiative, but we welcome the multi-stakeholder process and look forward to participating in it. We also welcome the proposed multi-stakeholder agreement on adopting a do-not-track system.

Today’s agreement providing consumers and business with clear privacy rules related to online behavioral advertising is a good first step in carrying out the promise of the multi-stakeholder approach to protecting privacy. We are encouraged that the agreement was done collaboratively, with involvement from government, business and civil society. SIIA looks forward to additional accomplishments and stands ready to work with all stakeholders to continue to ensure consumer privacy is protected in the Internet age.

Katie CarlsonKen Wasch is President of SIIA.

Filed Under: Policy, Policy - Privacy

SIIA Applauds Progress of Senate Cybersecurity Legislation

February 14, 2012 By Ken Wasch Leave a Comment

With cyber threats more sophisticated and targeted than ever, and growing at an unprecedented rate, now is the time to act on critical cybersecurity legislative priorities. We are pleased to see that Sens. Lieberman, Collins, Rockefeller and Feinstein have made significant progress in striking a balance between preserving innovation and identifying and regulating critical infrastructure.

SIIA continues to believe that cybersecurity legislation could potentially do more harm than good if not done carefully. A regulatory approach would not necessarily make organizations more secure, just more compliant. It is imperative that Congress preserves the ability of technology companies to quickly develop and deploy technology that can detect, prevent and mitigate cybersecurity threats.

We urge swift, bipartisan support for legislation that advances critical cybersecurity priorities and immediately enhances our preparedness. As we identified in a recent letter to Sen. Reid, there are multiple cybersecurity objectives that enjoy strong bipartisan support in the House and Senate, such as enhancing information-sharing between the public and private sectors, reforming FISMA, encouraging increased cybersecurity research and ensuring that law enforcement has the adequate tools and criminal penalties for to protect against cyber crimes.

SIIA is committed to the goal of enacting legislation that will establish a meaningful national framework for data security and for breach notification, and we look forward to continuing to work with Congressional leaders to reach consensus.

Katie CarlsonKen Wasch is President of SIIA.

 

Filed Under: Government, Policy, Policy - Cybersecurity, Software Tagged With: ,

Jobs battled tech giants, secures place in history

October 6, 2011 By Ken Wasch Leave a Comment

With all of the tributes to Steve Jobs written in the past day, it’s clear that Steve was a remarkable individual due to his vision, and his ability to turn that vision into game-changing products.

With every bold person whose short life we honor, it is interesting to consider how the world would have been different if that person had never lived. Take your pick:  Franklin, Edison, Ford, Einstein, the Wright brothers, Berners-Lee, etc., etc. They have all enriched our lives in many ways. What makes Steve Jobs stand out in such rarified company?  It’s Steve’s impact on so many products over one-third of a century.

Apple was founded in 1976 and popularized the graphical user interface and low-cost, easy-to-use computing. But Steve had second, third, and fourth acts to come.  He has at least six and as many as 10 major game-changing products to his credit.  What makes his inventions unique is that they revolutionized existing products against hulking competition.

He battled Microsoft for the desktop.  He took on Sony for the MP3 player.  And unbelievably, in 2007 he had the courage to take on Nokia, RIM and Palm with the bold claim that he could create a better smartphone. And in his spare time, he revolutionized animation by turning a small graphics company into Pixar (which he sold to Disney for $7.2 billion).

I had the pleasure of meeting Steve six or seven times over the past 20 years.  Most memorably, Steve spoke at an SIIA event while he was CEO of NeXT.  He spoke about the great product he was working on—the NeXT computer, and then told the audience of 600 or so that he wanted to give everyone the greatest product his company had produced so far—and promptly distributed 600 colorful NeXT T-Shirts. I still have mine!

Steve will be missed by the thousands of people who got to know him, and the millions who use Apple’s products every day.  His legacy lives on at Apple, and at thousands of companies he inspired to “think different.”

Filed Under: Software Tagged With: , ,