Policy and Law: Federal and Cybersecurity

EDUCAUSE joined the American Council on Education (ACE) in comments to respond to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The EDUCAUSE contribution addressed the proposed rules treatment of Social Security Numbers (SSN's), Student ID Numbers, and Student User ID's in the context of "directory information." The comments state:

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has established a Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency – the administration that will take office in January 2009.  The goal of the nonpartisan Commission is to develop recommendations for a comprehensive strategy to improve cyber security in federal systems and in critical infrastructure.

The EDUCAUSE/Internet2 Security Task Force has been invited to provide input to the Commission and welcomes your comments in the following areas:

The Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee's State of the Net Conference will be held on January 30, 2008, in Washington, D.C. The conference offers attendees unparalleled opportunities to network and dialogue on key technology and information policy issues. Attendees include a mix of academics, consumer groups, industry, and government. In 2007, over 50 percent of the attendees were policy staff from Congressional offices and governmental agencies. There is a significant registration discount for non-profit and academic organizations. For more information or to register, go to http://netcaucus.org/conference/2008/

The U.S. House of Representatives has introduced H. Res. 716 "expressing the sense of Congress with respect to raising awareness and enhancing the state of computer security in the United States, and supporting the goals and ideals of National Cyber Security Awareness Month." The resolution was presented by Rep. James R. Langevin (Dem-RI), chair of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology of the House Homeland Security Committee.

While introducing the resolution on the House floor, Rep. Langevin said:

The Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council (CIPAC) held its first open session since its establishment in March of 2006.  The CIPAC, co-chaired by Robert B. Stephan, Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Michael Wallace, President of the Constellation Generation Group, represents a partnership between government and critical infrastructure/key resource (CI/KR) owners and operators and provides a forum in which they can engage in a broad spectrum of activities to support and coordinate critical infrastructure protection.