SMBs Say Candidates Don’t Get Them; Debate on Cybersecurity Continues

• Small business owners feel policies favor large businesses.
• Republicans oppose more regulations to boost private businesses’ cybersecurity.
• Former FBI official calls for clarity on how to combat cyberthreats.

Small business owners feel too many policies endorsed by politicians favor large businesses, says Bloomberg. SMBs say politicians unjustly believe that small companies operate just as larger corporations do when in reality they are not operationally similar.

Republicans feel that imposing more regulations and mandates on private businesses for the sake of cybersecurity will cripple them. Senators John McCain, Kay Bailey Hutchison and Saxby Chambliss wrote together in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal that Congress needs to pass a bipartisan bill soon that provides “liability protections to allow the private sector and governments to better share cyber-threat information.”

Meanwhile, former FBI official Steve Chabinsky thinks there should be further debate and clarity on what exactly businesses can do to combat cyberthreats; this according to the Washington Post. The government, he says, needs to enable companies who are under attack to be more aggressive in defending themselves, as well as forge more productive relationships with the private sector and law enforcement to crack down on cybercriminals.