Review - S 2491 Introduced – Defense of US Infrastructure

Review - Sen King (I,ME) introduced S2491, the Defense of United States Infrastructure Act of 2021. The bill would establish a cyber resilience assistance fund and take other measures to improve the resilience and cybersecurity of critical infrastructure. Funding is authorized in the bill.

Those other measures include:

• A government-wide, cloud-based, information sharing environment,

• The establishment of up to three cybersecurity-focused critical technology security centers,

• A requirement for the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency to conduct connected industrial control system security testing,

• The establishment of a National Cybersecurity Certification and Labeling Authority,

• The establishment of a Bureau of Cybersecurity Statistics within DHS, and

• The designation of Systemically Important Critical Infrastructure.

While King is not a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, to which this bill was assigned for consideration, one of his three cosponsors {Sen Rosen (D,NV)} is a member. This means that there may be enough influence to see this bill considered in Committee. I suspect that there would be some significant Republican opposition to this bill because of the use of mandatory reporting and security requirements included in the bill. The lack of the terms ‘voluntary’ and ‘consensus standards’ will make it hard for many Republicans to support this measure.

For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2491-introduced - subscription require.