In addition to passing the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) (see Legal Update, House Approves CISPA Despite Privacy and Civil Rights Concerns), the US House of Representatives recently passed three cybersecurity bills that now will go to the US Senate for a vote:

FISAA, which passed by a voice vote on April 26, 2012, is designed to update the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2012 (FISMA). FISAA aims to improve security for federal government IT systems by requiring federal agencies to use automated and continuous monitoring of their IT systems to mitigate risk before a cyber attack occurs. The US Senate proposed its own legislation to amend FISMA as part of its Cybersecurity Act of 2012, introduced on February 14, 2012 (see Legal Update, Cybersecurity Act of 2012 Introduced in the Senate).

The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act, which passed on April 27, 2012 by a 395-10 vote, is designed to secure federal networks and critical infrastructure by advancing cybersecurity research, development and technical standards.

The Advancing America's Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act, which passed by a voice vote on April 27, 2012, would update and modernize the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991. Specifically, this bill proposes to, among other things, encourage large-scale research in areas that have the potential for significant contributions to national economic competitiveness and conduct research on cloud computing services.