Legislative Activity
This Week’s Hearings:
- Tuesday, October 29: The House Homeland Security Committee has again rescheduled its markup of the Critical Infrastructure Research and Development Advancement Act of 2013 (H.R. 2952) and the Homeland Security Cybersecurity Boots-on-the-Ground Act (H.R. 3107) for Tuesday at 10:00 am. H.R. 2952 focuses on research and development efforts at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that seek to advance security technologies for critical infrastructure protection, while H.R. 3107 establishes cybersecurity occupation classifications, assesses the cybersecurity workforce, and develops a strategy to address identified gaps in the cybersecurity workforce at DHS.
- Wednesday, October 30: The House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications and the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies will host a joint hearing at 9:00 am titled “Cyber Incident Response: Bridging the Gap Between Cybersecurity and Emergency Management.”
Executive Branch Activity
NIST Cybersecurity Framework
Last week, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released its draft Cybersecurity Framework which was required as part of President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity Executive Order (EO) published in February 2013. Stakeholders have until December 6 to submit their comments on the draft Cybersecurity Framework which will be incorporated in the final Cybersecurity Framework due in February 2014 according to the deadlines established in the EO. NIST is also planning to hold a final workshop to discuss the draft Cybersecurity Framework on November 14-15 at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina.
