Senate Bill Targets Government’s Response to Agency-Involved Cyber Incidents – By Brandi Vincent (Nextgov) / Dec 15 2020
Agencies would see new reporting requirements to keep Congress and impacted individuals more informed about security breaches.
Two senior senators introduced legislation late last week that would revamp the Federal Information Security Management Act, or FISMA, to explicitly clarify when and how agencies must alert people affected—and Congress—about breaches to federal data systems.
The Federal System Incident Response Act put forth by Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, marks a bipartisan move to increase transparency, reporting and information-sharing in the government’s response to cybersecurity incidents impacting federal information systems.
Though it was introduced in the final weeks of the 116th Congress, the new bill reflects potential priorities for the forthcoming congressional session, officials confirmed—and it’s connected to a notable provision that could be included in the legislative text of the in-the-works trillion-dollar omnibus spending package.
The bill is also unintentionally timely. It was released only days before reports surfaced that FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency officials are investigating a serious security breach spanning multiple agencies.
