Review - S 2292 Introduced – Cyber-Attack Response

Back in June, Sen Daines (R,MT) introduced S 2292, the Study on Cyber-Attack Response Options Act. The bill would require DHS to conduct a study on the potential consequences and benefits of amending the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to allow private companies to take proportional actions in response to an unlawful network breach. No funding is authorized by this bill.

Neither Daines or his sole cosponsor {Sen Whitehouse (D,RI)} are members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that it is unlikely that there would be enough influence to see this bill be considered in Committee. While this is only a study and report bill, I believe that this hacking back concept is controversial enough that there might be bipartisan opposition to the bill for a variety of ideological reasons. I do not think that there would be sufficient support to favorably report the bill out of the Committee.

For more details on the bill and a discussion of ‘hacking back’, see my article on CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2292-introduced - subscription required.