Sen. Rockefeller’s Cybersecurity Joke

As I noted in an earlier blog posting, Sen. Rockefeller (D,WV) introduced S 21, the Cybersecurity and American Cyber Competitiveness Act of 2013. A copy of the bill has finally become available, and it is, unfortunately, a replay of last session’s S21, a poor joke of cybersecurity legislation if there ever was one.

As happened two years ago when Sen. Reid (D,NV) introduced S21, I (and much of the political press) initially thought that this would be a serious attempt at bringing cybersecurity legislation to the floor of the Senate. When the actual legislation was made available by the GPO it became clear that this statement of the cybersecurity problem was nothing more than a publicity gimmick.

I am severely disappointed in Rockefeller’s participation in this legislative farce. The only good thing I can say about his version of the bill is that it is not a straight copy/paste of last session’s bill. Someone on his staff (Senator’s don’t actually write bills) actually accepted the drafting of this bill as a creative writing assignment and made several non-substantive changes to the wording.

So, enough of the practical jokes; let’s see some real legislative proposals on cybersecurity.