Cyber Safety Month: CyberSecurity Bill Fails in Senate

This past month, a bill that would establish voluntary cybersecurity standards across all US companies failed to meet the required 2/3 majority Senate vote for approval. The bill was originally designed to protect critical US infrastructure from external cyber threats through mandatory ‘best practices’ requirements. In an effort to push the bill through the senate, it was reworked into a voluntary measure.

The electrical grid, internet communication, and water supply were some examples of the infrastructure to be protected. In the end, the bill failed to win enough votes from critics who stated “…that any cybersecurity standards — whether mandatory or voluntary — would place a financial strain on private companies. They say government intervention is not necessary on this issue”

Supporters of the bill believe that private companies and infrastructure in the United States is facing a threat too large to be handled on an individual basis.

“This is one of those days when I fear for our country, and I’m not proud of the United States Senate,” Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), one of the bill’s chief sponsors, said before the vote. “We’ve got a crisis, and it’s one that we all acknowledge. It’s not just that there’s a theoretical or speculative threat of cyberattack against our country — it’s real.”

Opposition to the bill was so strong, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce “threatened to track how lawmakers voted on the measure in its influential annual assessments.”

At the end of the day, the nation’s cyber security is only as strong as its weakest link, and only time will tell how strong that link is.

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