FISMA News

Legislation to establish a White House Office of Cyberspace Policy, with its Senate-confirmed director to have influence over agencies’ IT security budgets, was introduced late Thursday by the leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.The Cybersecurity and Internet Freedom Act of 2011 also would reform the way IT security would be governed in the federal government, emphasizing real-time monitoring of government IT systems and a move away from paper-compliance under the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002. The bill would require each agency to designate a qualified, senior official as chief information security officer.

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 9 (UPI) — A forum to advance to advance public-private cybersecurity innovation and collaboration is being organized for California next month.

The Security Innovation Network described its annual IT Security Entrepreneurs’ Forum as an increasingly vital event for connecting private industry, investors and researchers in order to defeat global cyber-threats.

“A breakdown in cybersecurity is now one of the five major risks facing the global economy and the U.S. needs to be able to respond to attacks at network speed,” said Robert Rodriguez, founder and chairman of SINET.

The Department of Energy is launching an initiative to enhance cyber security on the electric grid. The initiative, led by the Department’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE), the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, will be an open collaboration with representatives from across the public and private sectors to develop a cyber security risk management process guideline for the electric sector.