Senate Fails to Move Forward on Cybersecurity

Washington – Senators backing the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 failed today in their attempt to move the bill toward a final vote for passage, meaning that the Senate will not take further action on cybersecurity legislation before its August recess. However, the issue could be taken up again as early as September.

The following statement can be attributed to Gregory T. Nojeim, director of CDT’s Project on Freedom, Security and Technology:

“CDT continues to believe that it’s possible – and desirable – to develop cybersecurity legislation that protects privacy while enhancing the security of our government and private sector networks. We were very pleased with the progress that had been made to improve the information sharing language in the Lieberman-Collins bill. We were also very pleased with the statement yesterday by General Keith Alexander that it is not necessary to have the National Security Agency the focal point of information sharing. We believe legislation should, first and foremost, empower private sector entities to share information with each other – this is the form of information sharing that would be the most effective in securing networks and pose the lowest risk to civil liberties.”