Today, Congressman Curtis and Congresswoman Wild (D-PA) introduced the NTIA Policy and Cybersecurity Coordination Act to streamline the development of cybersecurity policy at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) through the establishment of an Office for Policy Development and Cybersecurity.
The NTIA Policy and Cybersecurity Act will refocus the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to ensure they are working to better secure the communications technology industry,” said Curtis. “State and nonstate actors are working overtime to find vulnerabilities in our networks. We must work even harder to ensure that Americans are protected from cyberattacks.
Bolstering our efforts to counter cybersecurity threats is of critical importance, particularly as bad actors around the world relentlessly work to hack into American homes, businesses, and government offices with dangerous ransomware attacks,” said Rep. Wild. “The vulnerabilities that these attacks expose are enormous, from revealing financial information about American families to potentially shutting down operations at American companies. This bipartisan legislation gives the National Telecommunications and Information Administration the legal tools it needs to more effectively and aggressively combat this growing threat and keep Americans safe, and I’m proud to be leading this effort alongside Congressman Duncan and Congressman Curtis.
Background:
This bill establishes the Office for Policy Development and Cybersecurity which will develop the cyber security practices and policies of the internet and technology sectors.
Specifically, this office will:
- Work with stakeholders to develop and implement cybersecurity and privacy policies with respect to the internet and other communications networks.
- Promote collaboration between security research and industry.
- Prevent and mitigating future software vulnerabilities in communications networks.
- Provide technical assistance on cybersecurity practices to small and rural communications service providers.
