On the recordMarch 14, 2022
I rise today in support of the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022, which is included as division Y in the Senate amendment to H.R. 2471, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022. Cyber attacks and ransomware attacks are a serious national security threat that have affected everything from our energy sector to the Federal Government and Americans' own sensitive information. The SolarWinds breach demonstrated how broad the ripple effects of these attacks can be, affecting hundreds or even thousands of entities connected to the initial target. As cyber and ransomware attacks continue to increase, the Federal Government must be able to quickly coordinate a response and hold bad actors accountable. Especially now, as the threat of Russian cyber attacks looms in light of Putin's horrific invasion of Ukraine, we shouldn't be relying on voluntary reporting to protect our crucial infrastructure. The Federal Government needs to know when vital sectors of our economy are affected by a breach so that the full resources of the Federal Government can be mobilized to respond and mitigate their impacts. This bipartisan bill will take significant steps to strengthen cybersecurity protections, ensure that CISA is at the forefront of our Nation's response to serious breaches, and most importantly, require timely reporting of these attacks to the Federal Government so that we can better prevent future incidents and hold attackers accountable.…





