The Senate passed one of the most significant pieces of cyber legislation yet on March 2, that if passed in the House of Representatives, would mandate companies in healthcare, among other "critical industries," to report cyberattacks and ransom payments to the government, The Washington Post reported March 2.
Although the same bill failed in the Senate last year, fears over potential Russian cyberattacks may have helped it over the line this time around. The critical sectors include energy, transportation, financial services, healthcare and a variety of other fields. In addition to the reporting mandate, the bill also includes an update to how government agencies should manage their information security and an update to how the government assesses the security of federal agencies' use of cloud computing.
"As our nation continues to support Ukraine, we must ready ourselves for retaliatory cyberattacks from the Russian government," said Senate Homeland Security Chair Gary Peters, D-Mich., a lead sponsor of the bill.
The bill would allow the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to better understand the frequency and time of cyberattacks on U.S companies.