Rare success in the US House on an issue Langevin has been heavily involved

Langevin applauds House passage of two cybe-security bills

EDITOR'S NOTE: we received the following two announcements from Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) on the amazing feat of the Republican-dominated US House of Representatives passing two pieces of cyber-security legislation that he worked on. I have put both announcements into this article.

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Jim Langevin (D-RI), co-founder and co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus, today offered his support for H.R. 1560, the Protecting Cyber Networks Act, which passed the House by a vote of 307-116.

“This legislation has been a long time coming. The Protecting Cyber Networks Act successfully strikes the delicate balance between strengthening cyber defenses and preserving privacy and civil liberties, and I am so proud to be a part of its passage,” said Langevin. “This bill is not perfect, but, when combined with the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act we will consider tomorrow, it will represent a major step in the right direction and I look forward to continuing to craft this legislation to ensure it best serves our cybersecurity needs and the concerns of the American people.”

The Protecting Cyber Networks Act requires the Director of National Intelligence to establish procedures to promote the voluntary sharing of cyber threat information between private industry and the federal government. Sharing threat signatures and other breach information allows both parties to fortify their networks against similar attacks in the future. Under this bill, the DNI would also establish a framework to protect privacy and civil liberties, including safeguards that ensure shared information may not be used by other entities to gain an unfair competitive advantage. Both sets of procedures would be crafted in consultation with the Departments of Homeland Security, Treasury, Justice, Commerce and Defense. 

“After carefully studying this issue for nearly a decade, I can firmly say that this bill represents tremendous progress in our national cybersecurity. With these voluntary information sharing tools, both the private and public sectors can better protect networks from attack,” Langevin continued. “I do have concerns over the liability protections provided for in this bill, which I fear could be construed to protect a company’s failure to act on threat indicators. I hope this is an area we can continue to work on, and ultimately find a solution that incentivizes good cybersecurity practices while still holding companies accountable.”

A senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Committee on Homeland Security, Langevin served for eight years on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence until 2014, when he reached the term limit. While serving on Intelligence, Langevin worked closely with former Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) and former Ranking Member Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) on similar information-sharing legislation.

“The legacies of Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Ruppersberger are clearly evident in this legislation, and I am grateful to them both for their leadership on this important issue. I likewise congratulate current Chariman Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Ranking Member Adam Schiff (D-CA) for rising to the challenge. They have continued the bipartisan spirit that has long animated the Intelligence Committee’s cybersecurity work and, as a result, produced an even better product,” he said. “There is clearly a growing movement calling for stronger cyber defenses, and I am hopeful that today’s victory will build on that momentum.”

Amendment Protects Privacy and Restores Trust in Information Sharing

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Jim Langevin (D-RI), co-founder and co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus and a senior member of the Committee on Homeland Security, voted today in support of the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act, the second piece of cybersecurity legislation to pass the House in two days.

“Cybersecurity has been a passion of mine for nearly a decade, and I am thrilled to see that, after years of hard work, the House, the Senate, and the President are beginning to see eye-to-eye on this bipartisan issue,” said Langevin. “The National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act provides a framework by which we can implement an information sharing process that benefits the federal government, private industry and consumers. It is one piece of a much larger puzzle, but it represents a major victory in our ongoing efforts to close our aperture of vulnerability in cyberspace.”

The National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act authorizes private entities and the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) to share, for cybersecurity purposes only, cyber threat indicators that have been stripped of personal details. The legislation also allows businesses to monitor their networks in search of vulnerabilities, and authorizes companies to deploy limited defensive measures to protect their systems from malicious actors.

This bill, which passed by a vote of 355-63, was reported unanimously out of the Committee on Homeland Security. Langevin authored two of the provisions added during the Committee’s consideration of the legislation, including a clarification of the Committee’s support for DHS’s STIX/TAXII program. Langevin also offered an amendment on the Floor that clarifies the definition of cybersecurity risk and ensures that personal consumer information is removed before cyber threat information is shared; the amendment was adopted by voice vote.

“My amendment offers a small but very important change that will protect Americans’ privacy and ensure that security researchers are not inadvertently monitored. Trust is the fundamental element of any information sharing system. The bill we passed today is designed to build that trust by limiting the use of information shared to cybersecurity purposes and, taken with my amendment, makes clear that our focus is on the many real cyber threats we face, not on consumers or researchers,” Langevin continued. “Information sharing is not a silver bullet by any means, but it will substantially improve our nation’s cyber defenses. Today, the House passed its second major piece of cybersecurity legislation in less than 24 hours, and I am energized and hopeful that we will continue to improve these bills and improve our nation’s cybersecurity.”