This Week: The 'Game Changer'

The cybersecurity community will begin an important and maybe painful conversation this week when the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee begins marking up the 2009 Cybersecurity Act on Wednesday. Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, wrote the bill and first introduced it in early 2009.

Those in the Washington cyber circles and who are privy to the real-life and frightening consequences of what the government has actually lost due to weak security say this bill is long overdue. From a Nextgov article published last year:

The bill "could do more to improve cybersecurity than any action in the last decade," said Jim Lewis, director and senior fellow for the technology and public policy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Lewis served as program director for the CSIS Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency, which released recommendations in December 2008 for improving cybersecurity practices in government, a number of which are included in the bills.

"This looks like the game-changer -- or at least the conversation-changer," said Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, a nonprofit cybersecurity research group based in Bethesda, Md. "Its reach is far greater than any cyber bill I have ever seen, extending deep into corporate America."

From a joint statement from Rockefeller and Snowe on the 2009 Cybersecurity Act, a.k.a. the Rockefeller-Snowe Cybersecurity Act:

WHAT THE ROCKEFELLER-SNOWE CYBERSECURITY ACT WILL DO:

* Significantly raise the priority of cybersecurity throughout the federal government and streamline cybersecurity-related government functions, authorities and laws.

* Protect civil liberties, intellectual property and business proprietary information.

* Promote cybersecurity public awareness, education, and research and development.

* Foster market-driven cybersecurity innovation and creativity to develop long-term technology solutions and train the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.