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[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1438 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1438

 To express the sense of Congress on improving cybersecurity globally, 
  to require the Secretary of State to submit a report to Congress on 
            improving cybersecurity, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 10, 2009

Mrs. Gillibrand introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
             referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
 To express the sense of Congress on improving cybersecurity globally, 
  to require the Secretary of State to submit a report to Congress on 
            improving cybersecurity, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Fostering a Global Response to Cyber 
Attacks Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) For more than a decade, reports have described the 
        increasing vulnerability of the United States to cyberattacks, 
        including a recent leading think tank report that stated, 
        ``Cyber attack joins terrorism and weapons of mass destruction 
        as one of the new, asymmetric threats that put the U.S. and its 
        allies at risk.''.
            (2) There have been numerous cyberattacks against United 
        States intelligence and military targets, resulting in the 
        Department of Defense spending more than $100,000,000 in the 
        first 6 months of 2009 to repair damage to networks caused by 
        cyberattacks.
            (3) Cyberattacks cost the economy of the United States 
        billions of dollars annually.
            (4) A growing array of state and non-state actors, such as 
        terrorists and international criminal groups, are targeting 
        United States citizens, United States commerce, and the 
        information infrastructure of the United States, including the 
        Internet, telecommunications networks, computer systems, and 
        embedded processors and controllers in critical industries, to 
        steal, exploit, and potentially disrupt or destroy information.
            (5) Cyber exploitation activity has grown more 
        sophisticated, more targeted, and more serious over the past 
        year and is expected to increase as advances in technology 
        continue to increasingly underpin the society of the United 
        States.
            (6) Relevant international cybersecurity agreements focus 
        only on issues relating to cyber crime and common operating 
        standards and have not been signed by certain countries from 
        which cyberattacks may be launched.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON IMPROVING CYBERSECURITY GLOBALLY.

    It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of State should work 
with the governments of foreign countries--
            (1) to develop comprehensive norms and cooperative 
        activities for international engagement to improve 
        cybersecurity;
            (2) to encourage international cooperation in improving 
        cybersecurity on a global basis; and
            (3) to develop appropriate safeguards for the protection of 
        privacy, freedom of speech, and commercial transactions to be 
        included in any agreements or other activities designed to 
        safeguard cyberspace.

SEC. 4. REPORT ON IMPROVING CYBERSECURITY.

    Not later than 270 days after the date of the enactment of this 
Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations of the Senate and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 
House of Representatives a report describing any actions taken by the 
United States to work with the governments of foreign countries to 
improve cybersecurity, as described in section 3.
                                 <all>
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