U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) has sponsored a bill that would help small business safeguard their digital data and protect themselves from cyber-attacks.
The bill, Making Available Information Now to Strengthen Trust and Resilience and Enhance Enterprise Technology (MAIN STREET) Cybersecurity Act, would require the director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology to consider small businesses when updating its voluntary guidance on how to guard against cyberattacks. This action will expand the necessary resources available to small business to protect their data.
“Cyberattacks can have a devastating effect on small businesses because many lack the resources to recover,” McCaskill said. “Ensuring that the tools the government produces to help organizations address cyber risks are helpful to local companies—not just enormous corporations—will assist Missouri business owners who are trying to protect their data.”
She cited a December 2016 report from the Missouri Cybersecurity Task Force that called for increased support for small businesses around cybersecurity threats.
“Many organizations around the State of Missouri lack the necessary resources to properly protect themselves from cybersecurity attacks…. Smaller organizations, including small businesses, schools, hospitals, banks, local government, and local utilities, deliver many essential services to Missouri citizens,” McCaskill said.
Following the Office of Personnel Management data breach, which compromised the personal information of at least 21.5 million individuals, McCaskill and a group of bipartisan senators introduced language that was signed into law increasing the Department of Homeland Security’s ability to protect federal civilian networks from cyberattacks.