Senate Passes Significant Cyber Bill Requiring Cyber Incident Reporting

The Strengthening American Cybersecurity Act of 2022, a bill that narrowly failed to become law last year, was passed in the Senate on Tuesday, March 1 as a package of cybersecurity measures that would require operators of critical infrastructure and federal civilian agencies to report cyber incidents to the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA). With bipartisan support, the bill was backed by Senator Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio). This marks the most significant cyber bill to make it through the Senate in the chamber's history, and if passed would be the first significant cyber legislation to pass since the 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, which gave companies legal cover to voluntarily share cyberthreat information with the government. The Strengthening American Cybersecurity Act of 2022 includes reporting of cyber incidents by critical infrastructure entities and federal agencies,