Bipartisan Bill Targets Federal Cybersecurity Workplace Shortage

A bipartisan bill has been introduced to address the shortage of cybersecurity staff within the federal government, CNBC reported.

The new bill is headed for the House floor and will allow experts to work among different federal agencies with the goal of creating a uniform response in the event of a cybersecurity attack, Rep. Ro Khanna of California told CNBC. The measure was co-authored by Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina.

Already approved by the House Oversight Committee, the Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program Act of 2021 is intended to maintain security over the federal government as well as associated data and information, Mace told CNBC.

“We got to make sure that the private sector has all the tools and resources that they need,” Mace added, per the report, also stating that she has seen the “lack of talent” in the federal, state and private sectors.

“This rotational program will be overseen by multiple federal agencies and multiple councils, including the CIO Council and Homeland Security, to make sure that we are being efficient and effective with creating greater protections for federal agencies and the federal government and the data of the American people that the federal government holds,” Mace told CNBC.

The House cybersecurity bill mirrors the bill introduced by the Senate in April, which is now part of the already-passed United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021, CNBC reported.

The ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline has elevated the risk of cybersecurity attacks. Worldwide ransomware attacks escalated 485 percent in 2020 over 2019, according to CNBC, which cited data from Bitdefender.

PYMNTS and Sift’s latest Digital Security Playbook: Building Trust And Loyalty Online showed that over 50 percent of consumers indicated they would not use an online retailer again if they experienced an incident of fraud. Merchants of all sizes are now tasked with considering what their fraud prevention plans should look like at present and in the future.