Review - S 4123 Introduced – Satellite Cybersecurity

Earlier this week, Sen Ossoff (D,GA) introduced S 4123, the Enhancing Satellite Cybersecurity Act. Vaguely similar to HR 7629, this bill would also require a GAO report on satellite cybersecurity for commercial satellite systems used by Federal agencies and CISA to provide information on satellite cybersecurity practices for those systems. There is no spending authorized by this legislation.

Moving Forward

Ossoff is a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there should be sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee. I see nothing in the bill that would engender any specific opposition. This bill would receive extensive bipartisan support if considered in Committee. This bill could make it to the floor of the Senate under the unanimous consent process.

Commentary

This bill is much more tightly focused on commercial satellite systems used by the Federal government than the earlier two satellite cybersecurity bills, HR 7629 and S 3511. This may increase its chance of consideration and ultimate passage. That would also mean that for some period of time, likely years, there would be no mandated federal focus on cybersecurity for commercial satellite systems that did not supply services to the Federal government. It would be an interesting trade-off, one that the commercial satellite industry probably needs to weigh in on.

 

For more details about this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-4123-introduced - subscription required.

Review - HR 7629 Introduced – Satellite Cybersecurity Reporting

Last week, Rep Malinowski (D,NJ) introduced HR 7629, the Satellite Cybersecurity Act. The bill would require the GAO to prepare a report to Congress on the cybersecurity of commercial satellite systems. It would also require CISA to establish a Commercial Satellite System Cybersecurity Clearinghouse. No funding authorization is included in the legislation. This bill is very similar to S 3511.

Malinowski and his sole cosponsor {Rep Garbarino (R,NY)} are members of the House Homeland Security Committee to which this bill is assigned for primary consideration of this legislation. This means that there should be sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee. I see nothing in the bill that would engender any organized opposition. I suspect that the bill would receive substantial bipartisan support within the Committee and would probably be considered in the Full House under the suspension of the rules process.

This bill utilizes semi-technical terms (cybersecurity risk and threat) that come from two different sections of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and those terms rely on definitions of the term ‘information system’ that contain two different takes on control system security, only one specifically includes industrial control systems within the scope of the definition. HR 7629 does nothing to address those definitional issues, but it does specifically address the different cybersecurity requirements of purely informational security and operational security. For that, the staff members that crafted the bill are to be commended. And realistically, a bill like this is probably not the proper vehicle for addressing the conflicting cybersecurity definitional issues that I harp on so frequently.

 

For more information about the legislative details, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-7629-introduced - subscription required.

Bills Introduced – 4-28-22

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session, there were 65 bills introduced. Two of those bills may see additional coverage in this blog:

HR 7629 To require a report on Federal support to the cybersecurity of commercial satellite systems, establish a commercial satellite system cybersecurity clearinghouse in the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and for other purposes. Rep. Malinowski, Tom [D-NJ-7]

S 4109 A bill to authorize the development of a national strategy for the research and development of distributed ledger technologies and their applications, to authorize awards to support research on distributed ledger technologies and their applications, and to authorize an applied research project on distributed ledger technologies in commerce. Sen. Wicker, Roger F. [R-MS]

I will be covering HR 7629.

I will be watching S 4109 for language and definitions that specifically require the inclusion of cybersecurity research within the scope of the programs outlined in the bill.