No Better Than 50/50 Chance for Cybersecurity Reform

As early as last week, Senator Lieberman stated that he is hopeful that “there is still a possibility” that cybersecurity could get passed in the Senate this year.  This is Senator Lieberman’s last legislative session since he is retiring this year.  Many beltway insiders believe that the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is eager to see passage of comprehensive cybersecurity reform as his last major achievement.

Although the odds are no better than 50/50 to get a law passed there are some recent developments that may buoy Senator’s Lieberman’s agenda.  First, it was widely reported this week about the discovery of a major malware virus called “flame,” and second it was reported that two major social networking sites, Linkedin and eHarmony, were hacked, compromising millions of user accounts.  Finally, Senators Whitehouse and Kyl are working on a compromise proposal on comprehensive cybersecurity reform.  It remains to be seen whether their proposal will generate enough support to overcome the current impasse between the Democratic and Republican proposals, but the odds are still not better than 50/50.