Despite the recent security breaches at major retailers and banks, sources tell digital media firm Morning Consult that there’s little hope that the Senate will pass a cybersecurity bill before the end of the year. The key reason for the delay is the upcoming midterm elections, which could significantly change the partisan composition of the Senate.
The current bill, approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee in July, has the backing of industry groups such as the American Bankers Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. But some big-name tech companies and privacy watchdog groups have aligned against the bill, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2014.
If passed, the bill, “would create a framework of information sharing between companies and the U.S. government,” says Morning Consult.
At a Bloomberg Government conference in Washington held earlier this month, Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss, who is the co-author of the bill, said he is “cautiously optimistic” that the Senate will vote on it after the midterms.
The news about the delayed legislation comes on the heels of a Morning Consult poll, which shows that consumer confidence in retailers and banks to protect their data is waning. The study found that one-third of registered voters said that their trust in their bank and other financial institutions dropped following the news of the recent JPMorgan hacking attack.
Half of those polled disclosed that their confidence is unchanged, with little discernible differences between Democrats, Republicans and independents. The study also found that despite the growing mistrust, more than half of respondents have not switched to cash transactions or changed their purchasing habits as a result of the cyber attacks.
Source: Morning Consult: Cybersecurity Bill Likely Stuck in Senate Until Next Year
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