Experts call energy infrastructure cybersecurity bill ‘shortsighted’

Some cybersecurity experts are skeptical of new Senate legislation to address concerns that hackers are looking to ramp up attacks against the U.S. energy infrastructure. Members of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources introduced the Securing Energy Infrastructure Act in early June — a first-of-its-kind bill to establish a pilot program and private-public working group to explore and better identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities evident in industrial control systems, or ICS, which are used to measure, control or manage some industrial functions. Though they see the intent of the bill as earnest, some cybersecurity experts told FedScoop they believe it addresses the issue in the wrong way. “While there is nothing wrong with the legislation from a technical perspective, in my opinion this is a shortsighted bill that misses the bigger picture,” Cris Thomas, a strategist at Tenable Network Security, told FedScoop.