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Analysis: Time for Congress to pass ‘pragmatic’ cyber rules

Larry Clinton, the president of the Internet Security Alliance, gives his assessment for some lawmakers\' call for a code of conduct.

Federal News Network Staff

October 6, 2011 5:54 pm

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wfedstaff | June 4, 2015 12:32 pm

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By Jolie Lee
Federal News Radio

One cybersecurity association supports a House Republican task force proposal to give companies voluntary incentives to boost cyber defenses. The lawmakers also recommend improved information sharing between the government, Internet service providers and ISP customers.

The plan is “comprehensive, elegant and detailed,” said Larry Clinton president of the Internet Security Alliance, tells In Depth with Francis Rose.

The task force released a list of recommendations that included offering tax breaks, grants and “varying degrees of liability protectors” to companies that have more stringent security practices.

Clinton said some recommendations in the report are practical solutions embraced by the Senate and the administration. For example, there has been broad support to reform the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA), he said. Lawmakers have also called for increasing cybersecurity education and making it easier to hire cyber experts, Clinton added.

“If we found agreement on those (issues) and didn’t hold those good ideas hostage to another idea that has no chance of being enacted, that’s a pragmatic path to improving cybersecurity,” Clinton said.

This story is part of Federal News Radio’s daily Cybersecurity Update. For more cybersecurity news, click here.