Cyber-security Bill Favored by US Senate

Cyber-security Bill Favored by US Senate

There were doubts cast on the United States' ability to protect its network as well as muddle through investments made in IT infrastructure. On September 23, the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved lagislation designed to secure the networks throughout the US and manage spendings on IT groundworks. This should prove some people wrong with their perception on how the US does the work when it comes to securing its information technology.
The bill is dubbed as FISMA (Federal Information Security Management) Act of 2008. It centers on the efficiency of information security policies and procedures. Moreover, the bill enables CIOs to effectively monitor their networks and accordingly respond to potential data breaches.



FISMA also aims to work away with the so-called "artificial barriers" to conformity and to support partnership between agencies by establishing a chief information security council under the leadership of National Cyber Security Center. In addition, the legislation allows the Department of Homeland Security to lead mock attacks against agency networks to uncover vulnerabilities.



Fisma is supported by Sen. Tom Carper.  In an official statement, he said, "We are open to attack not only from countries like Russia and China, but to criminal syndicates and terrorists. It is frightening to learn that the most powerful government in the world has essentially been helpless until now in preventing these information technology attacks."



The recently approved bill will need a reporting to CIOs on a project's cost, schedule and performance, and notifying Congress of any significant deviations made on a quarterly basis. Agencies would also be required to submit a list of its most precarious projects together with a cost assessment to the Congress.  Another scope of the bill is the need of OMB to create a team of IT experts which will help agencies with problematic undertakings.