Himes’ imprint on House-passed cybersecurity bill

WASHINGTON — Rep. Jim Himes played a leading role in ushering a game-changing cybersecurity bill through the House of Representatives.

As a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and senior Democrat on its National Security Agency and Cybersecurity Subcomittee, Himes immersed himself in the details of how best to break down barriers between government and businesses like Target, The Home Depot and Anthem Blue Cross-Blue Shield, all of which have been targets of hacking cybertheft.

The House on Wednesday approved the Protecting Cyber Networks Act by a vote 307-116 — a strongly bipartisan affirmation given the political divisiveness on Capitol Hill these days.

“It’s a big step forward in securing out networks, and that’s everything from Anthem to Sony to the government’s own computers,” Himes said in an interview. “It sets up the ability of smart people at the FBI and Homeland Security to work as a team with the private sector to identify, diagnose and guard against cyber attacks. It’s a significant improvement in terms of securing privacy.”

The House-passed measure would create a voluntary apparatus for sharing of information between government and corporations. It would permit cooperation both when threats arise and after hacking takes place.

At issue are current privacy rules that provide safeguards against sharing of computer data gathered by businesses. The House proposal would insulate corporations against lawsuits if they share records with federal agencies “in good faith” in response to hacking or in order to prevent it.

In return, companies would be required to scrub personal private information from data it turns over to the government. And the government also would have to check that information had been scrubbed before reviewing it.

The House on Thursday approved a companion piece of legislation that vests the U.S. Department of Homeland Security with responsibility for providing a “portal” — an information-sharing link between the private sector and government. Lawmakers had been anxious to avoid vesting the Pentagon or the NSA with such responsibility, given public sensitivities over unbridled domestic espionage in the name of national security.

The Senate is considering its own similar version of the bill. Its future there is not entirely certain, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said he wants to bring the bill to a vote before Memorial Day weekend at the end of May.

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