Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Sarah Mamula
Talk Radio News Service

“The Internet may have started out as a communications oddity some 40 years ago, but it is now a necessity of modern life and, sadly, one that is under constant attack," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) during a news conference with reporters on Thursday.

Lieberman, who chairs the powerful Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, along with the committee's ranking member Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Democratic Senator Tom Carper (Del.) introduced the “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010" earlier in the day.

The bill aims to coordinate efforts by the federal government and private sector to improve the nation's cyber defenses by creating a National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The NCCC would be run by a Senate-confirmed director with the authority to lead all federal cyber-security efforts, develop a national strategy to protect cyberspace, give policy advice to the President and resolve inter-agency disputes.

The legislation would also allow the President to declare a national "cyber emergency," and would grant him the ability to order immediate measures to be taken to guard sensitive material.

Collins emphasized the need for immediate action.

“We cannot wait for a cyber-9/11,” said Collins. “Computer systems of Congress and executive branch agencies are now under attack 1.8 billion times a month, costing the national economy billions of dollars.”

If passed, the bill would also update Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) to require continuous monitoring of federal networks and secure the $80 billion of information technology products that the government purchases each year.

While emergency powers for the President would be “carefully circumscribed” within the act, Collins stressed that the bill does not authorize increased surveillance or permit the government to take over private networks.

Lieberman announced that a committee hearing on the bill will be held next Tuesday and a mark-up the following week in hopes to report the bill onto the Senate floor before the July 4th break.