On the recordMarch 1, 2012
I rise today to speak in support of the Strengthening and Enhancing Cybersecurity by Using Research, Information, and Technology Act of 2012, otherwise known as the SECURE IT Act. This bill provides a strong foundation for Congress to enact what I hope can be a truly bipartisan approach for improving the ability of all Americans to protect themselves against the ever- increasing cybersecurity threat. This bill was dropped today under the leadership of Senator McCain, Senator Hutchison, Senator Grassley, Senator Murkowski, and myself, and I am very pleased to be a part of that group who has worked very hard on this bill for a number of months. There are a few who dispute the significance of the problem posed by the threat of cyber attacks. The financial harm inflicted by these attacks is now costing Americans billions of dollars each year. Denial- of-service attacks have been shutting down the Internet presence of business and organizations for years. Beyond the economic costs, malicious cyber activity is damaging our national security. Every day, cyber criminals and foreign adversaries steal large amounts of sensitive information from the networks of government and private sector entities. These trends need to be reversed before these malicious activities are measured in terms of lives lost rather than in terms of dollars as we are seeing today. For years the Senate Intelligence Committee has been following the growing cybersecurity threats.…
