Getting to a Cybersecurity Bill

Congress has managed to make it all the way through another legislative session without getting a cybersecurity bill up for a vote.  There are a curious mix of organizations preventing the bill from getting there, and none of them are directly involved with cybersecurity.  The USA Today's Erin Kelly touched on it yesterday in his piece, Cybersecurity legislation may face tough road.  [ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/08/28/cybersecurity-wyden-burr/71312428/ ]  It seems the debate will have to consider 21 amendments, some brought for a second or third time by "privacy advocates".  Kelly quotes Matt Eggers, U.S. Chamber of Commerce as saying there is very little time left for this legislation and using the "woe is me" line like a politician.  This from an organization that has done more to slow-roll any legislation that has been proposed.  They used the liability excuse for years, when there was no clear indication that liability was the real issue.  Now, they try to blame someone else - everybody with a brain blames Congress - but there are other forces at work.

The Chamber blamed "liability issues" for the first fight with Congress over this bill.  The only liability that comes to mind is the one faced by an IT industry that builds information systems and software ill suited for its intended purpose.  The industry has fought any kind of standards for security indicating the exchange of information might be a legal issue if one business or a government entity says there is something wrong with one of their products.  In some circles we call these zero-day exploits, and they are everywhere, yet the industry takes no responsibility for them, and certainly does not want a company or government entity telling them they need to take corrective action.  So, while the Chamber says it "really wants to get this legislation going" nothing has yet been done.

Tomorrow I can look at some of those 21 amendments that are slowing down the process of having this bill approved.  That goes to our good friend, Harry Reid.