http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/253393-schumer-calls-for-vote-on-stalled-cyber-bill
Recently there a breach in New York’s Blue Cross Blue Shield system
was detected. The hack had been
going on for about a year without anyone knowing. Many people’s personal information was taken and when I say
many I mean approximately 10 million... House members are now trying to push
for focus to be shifted from the Iran deal to the Cybersecurity Information
Sharing Act but it seems that this won’t be the case until at least
October. This cybersecurity bill
has been put on a hold for a while and it won’t be moved into focus for a while,
which Chuck Schumer (NY) has made clear he is not happy about. He states his concern by talking about
how good online hackers have gotten and how concerned we should truly be.
As
a constituent of the Chuck Schumer, I agree that this is an extremely important issue
for Congress to start focusing on.
This is not the first security breach that has happened this year and it
doesn’t seem like much is being done to stop them. Recently this year, all of the Department of Veteran’s Affairs
computers were hacked and all of the employees’ and patients’ information was
taken. As the daughter of someone
who works at the VA Hospital, I can say first hand how much of an issue
something like this is. Yes, the
Iran deal is obviously extremely important as our entire country’s safety is on
the line but I do believe that this is a particularly important issue as well.
I
would hope that the members of the House will stick to their word and work on
this bill’s progress in October.
Why aren’t people concerned that events like this have continuously
taken place. It is seriously concerning
to know that all of our private information is at high risk of being
taken. At this point it is hard to
understand how we can trust giving our information to our employers, doctors,
or insurance companies if for all we know, they can get hacked without anyone
noticing.
2 comments:
This has me wondering about the determinants of our attention and of Congress's attention on myriad issues. The fact that Congress continues to focus on the Iran nuclear agreement, while potentially ignoring other issues suggests a couple of possible explanations. One might be the electoral incentives for generating public concern and opposition to the Iranian agreement. The Republican Party certainly wants to capitalize on this issue in November 2016. Another possible explanation, and one that is less obvious, perhaps hinges on the domestic versus foreign policy conundrum that lawmakers negotiate. What I mean by that is it may be easier for Congress to move on issues related to foreign policy, since our interests as citizens are less clear and less organized, than on issues internal to our borders. Of course, cyber-security issues are not specific to our borders, so it could be that my thinking is headed in the wrong direction here. But, really tackling cyber-security issues would require Congress to make some decisions that might be essential in the long-run, but more painful in the short-run. Though, in writing this, I'm right back to my earlier focus on electoral consequences.
While it may benefit certain parties to continue to discuss certain legislative matters, their tendency to ignore other important matters from extended periods of time can seriously hurt their constituents. Cybersecurity is one of the most important issues today because of the extremely heavy reliance on technology systems. While it creates benefits, it also leaves millions of people vulnerable, as seen in the Blue Cross Blue Shield case. There are many challenges that need to be addressed when discussing cybersecurity but none of them can even be discussed if Congress continues to remain focused on countless issues with no outcome coming from any. This inability to trust our information leads to an inability to trust the people who are supposed to help protect it. All in all, Congress continues to harm themselves in the eyes of the public when trying to justify their branch as a hardworking, worthwhile entity.
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