The House today passed by voice vote a cybersecurity bill that would require the government to provide much needed resources and guidance for small businesses as they face a deluge of cyberthreats.
The bipartisan NIST Small Business Cybersecurity Act (H.R. 2105) would require the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to issue voluntary cybersecurity guidelines for small businesses. The bill, which was sponsored by Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) and cosponsored by 13 other Republicans and 4 Democrats, gained the support of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
A similar bipartisan bill in the Senate, the MAIN STREET Cybersecurity Act (S. 770) sponsored by Sens. Brian Schatz (R-Hawaii) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho), passed the Senate Sept. 28.
A staffer for Senate Small Business Committee Chairman Risch told Bloomberg BNA today that the committee and the Senator “will work with the House” to pass a bill “that provides small businesses with a usable set of best practices to help keep themselves and their businesses safe from a variety of bad actors while doing business online.”
