House Committee Approves Cybersecurity Bill

U.S. House Privacy/Cyber Risk & Data Security

On February 5, the House Homeland Security Committee unanimously approved H.R. 3696, the National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act of 2013 (the NCCIP). The NCCIP builds on many of the ideas set forth in the February 2013 Presidential Executive Order on cybersecurity. The bill seeks to enhance cybersecurity readiness in governmental and private institutions, in part, by facilitating information sharing and a “public-private collaboration” between government agencies and “critical infrastructure owners” and by promoting “cross-sector coordination and sharing of threat information” through NIST. The bill directs NIST to develop voluntary best practices that include individual privacy and civil liberty protections. The NCCIP also amends the Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies Act of 2002 (SAFETY Act) to provide liability protections for those selling or providing agency-approved cybersecurity technology to customers.