Senate Staffer: Hill Sees Cyber as Priority

This was written by Michael W. Cheek on Friday, June 4, 2010, 8:37.

Momentum to pass major cyber legislation that could update FISMA and develop a plan to protect the United States’ critical infrastructure is growing on Capitol Hill, a Senate staffer told attendees at the Digital Government Institute Cybersecurity Conference in Washington.

“Cybersecurity is an issue that members of Congress are focusing on,” Deborah Parkinson, senior policy analyst on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, said. “There is a large majority on the Hill who want to take action.”

Parkinson said that change might come from amendments, such as those that have been added to the 2011Defense Department Authorization Bill. Several leaked provisions also would give the president emergency controls on private critical networks in the event of an “imminent cyber attack.”

“We are not taking over the world; we are not taking over anybody’s networks,” Parkinson said. Instead the powers would only apply in a very specific, and serious, set of circumstances.

“The president needs to have some very limited authorization,”  she said. “The broad vision of a president taking over networks is not a part of what we are doing.”