Two weeks after it passed the U.S. House of Representatives, a bill that would codify and modernize the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Continuous Diagnostics Mitigation (CDM) cybersecurity program was introduced into the Senate.
Known as the Advancing Cybersecurity Diagnostics and Mitigation Act, the legislation was originally proposed last July by Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Tex., and ushered into the Senate yesterday by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Tex. and Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.
“Cyberattacks are escalating at an alarming rate, making it vital that our federal agencies have access to programs and tools to help mitigate these risks,” Cornyn said in a press release. “This legislation would help ensure the Department of Homeland Security can continue to rely on and evolve the CDM program to understand and defend against the cyber threats before them.”
“By establishing in law the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program at the Department of Homeland Security and requiring the Department to develop policies for updating the program’s vulnerability detection capabilities to keep pace with ever-evolving threats, this bipartisan bill will further strengthen our nation’s defense in the face of cyber threats from Russia, China, criminal hackers, and cyber terrorists,” said Hassan in the same release.
DHS’s CDM program provides the federal government with automation capabilities and tools for monitoring vulnerabilities and unauthorized network activity, and identifying and prioritizing security risks for mitigation.
