Senate Listens to Data Breach Testimony

The Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance heard testimony on from several witnesses yesterday regarding the proposed national data breach legislation, including Maneesha Mithal of the Federal Trade Commission FTC and Mark Bregman, CTO of Symantec. Read the full...

NSA Director to Head U.S. Cyber Command

The U.S. Senate has approved Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, to also head the military’s recently created U.S. Cyber Command. Read the full article. Computerworld...

Security Pros React to Potential Federal Data Law

A federal cybersecurity law edged closer to reality late last week when the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill to protect the personal data of Americans. The bill is a bipartisan effort sponsored by Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and co-sponsored by former Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, th...

Two Data Breach Notification Bills Advance in Senate

Two separate bills that would require organizations to notify consumers when their personal information has been compromised have made their way out of committee in the Senate, a critical step toward the creation of a national data-breach notification bill. A variety of technology vendors, consum...

Senator Joe Lieberman Wants Head of Cyber Security to Reside in White House

Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Conneticut is set to propose a bill that would make the lead security post for the U.S. government a Presidential nominee approved by the Senate and accountable to Congress. This is in sharp contrast to the proposed hierarchy laid out by the ranking Republican...

Obama Nominates DHS Intelligence Chief

President Barack Obama has nominated Caryn Wagner to be the Homeland Security Department s intelligence chief, a position that oversees information technology systems designed to share information with federal, state and local officials. If confirmed by the Senate, Wagner would direct DHS Office ...

Experts call for White House lead on cybersecurity

In case you’ve missed it, there’s been a lot of talking in Washington lately about the need for major changes to the way that information security is handled in the federal government as well as the private sector. So far that talk hasn’t led to much in the way of action, but that may be on the...