An amendment to the FY11 Defense authorization bill the House passed Friday would expand efforts to update information security requirements for agencies and establish a separate cybersecurity office in the White House.
The bill includes an amendment that would speed passage of existing measures from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to overhaul federal cybersecurity.
"It was appropriate to attach this amendment to the Defense authorization bill because properly securing our cyber infrastructure is a national security issue," said a spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., who offered the amendment with Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif.
"Not only does this amendment make necessary and wholesale improvements to our current cybersecurity policy and management framework, but it will also ensure that agencies have a strong leader within the Executive Office of the President to assist them in their efforts," Watson said in a statement.
The amendment would mandate agency use of automated monitoring to assess cyber threats. It also would involve a major overhaul of the 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act, which often is criticized for forcing IT staffs to spend too much time and too many resources reporting about compliance with certain security procedures. Agencies also would be expected to incorporate security requirements into contracts from the start.
Other provisions in the amendment would establish a National Office of Cyberspace in the White House with budget authority over cybersecurity spending and government-wide coordinating responsibilities. It would codify posts of the federal cybersecurity coordinator, held by Howard Schmidt, and chief technology officer, who is Aneesh Chopra.
This article appeared in the Saturday, June 5, 2010 edition of National Journal Daily.
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