Senate GOP to Obama: Focus on cyber info sharing

Ahead of the State of the Union address Tuesday, the Senate Republican Policy Committee called on President Obama to focus his cybersecurity policy efforts on public-private partnerships.

“It is imperative the president and Congress get serious about tackling the issue,” said the group, which is chaired by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).  

{mosads}The White House last week rolled out a series of cybersecurity legislative proposals intended to create a nationwide data breach notification law, establish minimum cybersecurity standards, protect student data and enhance public-private cyber threat information sharing.

Obama is expected to highlight these offerings in his speech Tuesday night.

However, Republican senators feel the president should be concentrating mostly on the information sharing portion of his proposal.

“The most effective policy to thwart cybersecurity threats will be to advance proposals based on a balanced public-private partnership,” the group said.

The message was part of the policy committee’s missive on “what the president won’t say” in the State of the Union.

Senate Republicans vowed to proffer their own cyber measures.

“There will be bipartisan proposals aimed at enhancing protections for the private sector, government, and consumer stakeholders,” the group said. “Legislation is expected to address information sharing between the public and private sectors; enhancement of cyber research and development; cyber theft; and building a sufficient cyber workforce.”

Exactly what forms that legislation would take, and who would introduce the bills, is unclear.

After the White House dropped its own legislative proposals, a number of key Republican leaders on cybersecurity said they would be willing to work with the administration on its information sharing proposal.

“The president’s proposal is an important first step in developing [cyber info sharing] legislation,” said Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chairman.

“When we’ve got a committed White House, I can assure you it’ll be matched by a committed Senate of the United States,” said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.).

Burr added that the Intelligence ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) was working with him on a proposal.