Category Archives: activism

Lege Trend. Create a nonprofit + Partner with a Univeristy Law School = Legislative & Regulatory Recommendations

State: Vermont

Grid Security Partners:

  • Protect Our Power, an independent, nonprofit organization
  • The Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School

Goal of Partnership: to make the grid more resistant to physical or cyber threats & to improve its ability to restore power quickly in the event of an attack

Outcome: offer regulatory and legislative proposals

Valley News | Vermont Law School Team to Research Electrical Grid Security

Lege TREND. State Net Neutrality Bills. 2 Reasons to Oppose the Bill in the Blue Columbine State

State: Colorado

The Net Nuetrality Bill in Colorado: HB18-1312 

What group is opposing the bill? Americans for Tax Reform sister organization, Digital Liberty

What reasons do Americans for Prosperity offer to oppose Colorado’s HB18-1312?

  • The bill does not help net nuetrality, because the FCC did not destroy the internet
  • The bill harms Coloradoans

The Hill | Colorado’s legislature should think twice about passing a net neutrality law

Editorial Prioritizes Cyber Security Over Border Security. 2 Key Supporter Arguments.

  •  Trump administration has elevated U.S. Cyber Command to a unified combatant command
  • The internet is a critically weak link for the U.S.’s military 
    • “Adm. Michael Rogers, the head of Cyber Command, recently told Congress he needs $647 million to build the cyber mission force and conduct cyber operations”

Richmond Times Dispatch | Editorial: Cyber security is far more critical than border security

Lege Trend. 22 Groups of Banks & Retailers Join Forces. Wonder Twin Powers Urge 4 Point Data Security Bill.

The 4 Issues the group wants covered by federal data breach legislation:

  • A flexible, scalable standard for data protection that factors in:
    • the size and complexity of an organization
    • the cost of available tools to secure data
    • the sensitivity of the personal information an organization holds, as well as guarantees that small organizations are not burdened by excessive requirements.
  • Notification when a reasonable risk exists. A notification regime requiring timely notice to impacted…

4 Elements of Hack Back Legislation. Attack the attacker. Read the Bill. File it in Your State.

Congressman Tom Graves H.R. 4036:

  • “A voluntary review process that individuals and companies can utilize before using active-defense techniques;
    • This provision allows defenders to benefit from review of their proposed active-defense measures by the FBI Joint Taskforce, which will assist defenders in conforming to federal law and improving the technical operation of the measure;
    • The authority to conduct these reviews would exist under a two-year pilot program, and could be amended or…

2 Tenets of Data Security Legislation from Republicans.

Resiliance is the name of the game. R Street is calling for “resiliance” and not “remediation” in legislative solutions to data breaches.

If bills shouldn’t require that  consumers receive free credit report monitoring and cyber security standards and breach notification requirements for entities that maintain consumer data, what should bills do?

  • Require the National Institute of Standards and Technology to maintain a list of brest practices
  • The guidelines would ” empower[s] consumers to…