Congress should coordinate government cybersecurity to fend off a...
Congress should coordinate government cybersecurity to fend off attacks against the electrical grid, witnesses said Thursday at a House Commerce Energy Subcommittee hearing. Draft legislation discussed at the hearing would authorize the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to move promptly…
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against cybersecurity threats. Stakeholders disagree over how much authority FERC has over the subject and over what constitutes a “threat,” witnesses said. Some industry groups object to language that would allow the agency to act in instances of threats to national security. The bill could benefit from consideration at a classified briefing planned for next week, said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich. Energy Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher of Virginia hopes to get consensus and move the bill to the full committee, then the House floor, he said. “There is significant risk of attack,” said Rep. James Langevin, D-R.I., Homeland Security Cybersecurity Subcommittee chairman, at Thursday’s hearing. According to his panel’s findings, business must do more to reduce the threat, he said. FERC Chairman Joseph Kelliher said legislation is needed to bolster the commission’s inadequate legal authority concerning attacks. Kelliher wants a bill authorizing FERC to fight cyber threats and national security threats, including power to act preemptively. The threshold for labeling a threat “should not be so high as to be insurmountable,” he said. FERC should be able to require industry “to take adequate measures to address” threats, Kelliher said. Langevin endorses FERC’s request for more power, he said. House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., said legislation needs to ensure that the government “is not improperly hobbled by legal and jurisdictional boundaries in the case of an emergency.”