FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

February 4, 2010

CONTACT: Aaron Keyak

office: (202) 225-5061

cell: (202) 905-6361

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(Washington, DC) – Today, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2009 (HR 4061) by a bipartisan vote of 422 – 5 that will improve our nation’s cybersecurity. Congressman Steve Rothman (D-NJ), a member of the House Committee on Science and Technology, co-authored the bill to address America’s security needs.

“As an increasing amount of our personal information, business, and government’s work takes place online, the passage of the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act is a vital step toward strengthening our national security and the stability of our financial markets,” said Congressman Rothman. “Over the past decade we have seen a rise in cyber attacks against the U.S. government and large U.S. companies which have revealed a weakness in our nation’s cybersecurity policies. Even highly secured government targets, such as the Pentagon, are attacked by online hackers numerous times a day.”

The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act sets up a cross-agency strategic plan and objectives for federal cybersecurity research and development activities. This plan will establish a national infrastructure to ensure secure and reliable networking and information technology systems within the federal government and among U.S. companies. HR 4061 approaches this task by developing and implementing a user-friendly education campaign on cybersercurity, creating a taskforce to explore future public-private research partnerships in cybersecurity, and other measures to stop cyber attacks.

“This bill will provide the groundwork to secure U.S. operations in cyberspace by providing that federal agencies coordinate and prioritize research and development among themselves and with the U.S. private business sector,” said Congressman Rothman.  “Cyber crime can hit anyone, anywhere and this legislation will help make our nation more secure.”

The following groups have endorsed HR 4061: U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business Software Alliance, University of Illinois, Software and Information Industry Association, Applied Visions, Inc., VeriSign, Georgia Tech College of Computing, CA, inc., Symantec Corporation, U.S. Telecom, NCTA, McAfee, Inc., Computing Research Association, Association for Computing Machinery's U.S. Public Policy Council, and TechAmerica. 

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