S. 21 — Introduced in Senate

II 113th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 21 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES January 22 (legislative day, January 3), 2013 Mr. Rockefeller (for himself, Mr. Carper, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Levin, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. Whitehouse, and Mr. Coons) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs A BILL To secure the United States against cyber attack, to improve communication and collaboration between the private sector and the Federal Government, to enhance American competitiveness and create jobs in the information technology industry, and to protect the identities and sensitive information of American citizens and businesses. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Cybersecurity and American Cyber Competitiveness Act of 2013. 2. Findings Congress makes the following findings: (1) The country's leading officials in business, intelligence, and defense affairs agree that malicious state, terrorist, and criminal actors exploiting vulnerabilities in information and communications networks and gaps in cybersecurity pose one of the most serious and rapidly growing threats to both the national security and the economy of the United States. (2) With information technology now the backbone of the United States economy, a critical element of United States national security infrastructure and defense systems, the primary foundation of global communications, and a key enabler of most critical infrastructure, nearly every single United States citizen is touched by cyberspace and is threatened by cyber attacks. (3) Malicious actors in cyberspace have already caused significant damage to the United States Government, the United States economy, and United States citizens, and the threat continues to grow. (4) In its 2009 Cyberspace Policy Review, the White House concluded, Ensuring that cyberspace is sufficiently resilient and trustworthy to support U.S. goals of economic growth, civil liberties and privacy protections, national security, and the continued advancement of democratic institutions requires making cybersecurity a national priority.. (5) Leading experts in the private sector and the government agree that the United States should establish a new model of public-private collaboration, which fits the realities of the 21st century, to secure the country against cyber attack. 3. Sense of Congress It is the sense of Congress that Congress should enact, and the President should sign, bipartisan legislation to improve communication and collaboration between the private sector and the Federal Government to secure the United States against cyber attack, to enhance the competitiveness of the United States and create jobs in the information technology industry, and to protect the identities and sensitive information of United States citizens and businesses by— (1) enhancing the security and resiliency of public and private communications and information networks against cyber attack by nation-states, terrorists, and cyber criminals; (2) establishing mechanisms for sharing cyber threat and vulnerability information between the government and the private sector; (3) developing a coherent public-private system to improve the capability of the United States to assess cyber risk and prevent, detect, and robustly respond to cyber attacks against United States critical infrastructure, such as the electric grid, the financial sector, and telecommunications networks; (4) promoting research and development investments in the United States information technology sector that create and maintain good, well-paying jobs in the United States and help to enhance the economic competitiveness and cybersecurity of the United States; (5) promoting cybersecurity and information technology training to develop the country’s next generation of cyber professionals; (6) preventing and mitigating identity theft and guarding against abuses or breaches of personally identifiable information; (7) enhancing United States diplomatic capacity and public-private international cooperation to respond to emerging cyber threats, including promoting security and freedom of access for communications and information networks around the world and battling global cyber crime through focused diplomacy; (8) expanding tools and resources for investigating and prosecuting cyber crimes in a manner that respects privacy rights and civil liberties and promotes United States innovation; and (9) maintaining robust protections of the privacy of United States citizens and their online activities and communications.