Hassan cosponsors Supply Chain Security Training Act
U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan
WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Chair of the Emerging Threats Subcommittee, cosponsored bipartisan legislation to help protect the United States against cybersecurity threats and other technological supply chain security vulnerabilities that arise when the federal government purchases services, equipment, or products. The Supply Chain Security Training Act, which was introduced by Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Ron Johnson (R-WI), would create a standardized training program to help federal employees responsible for purchasing services and equipment identify whether those products could compromise the federal government’s information security.
“We must do more to secure our federal systems against increasingly frequent attacks that can hobble our efforts to protect national security,” Senator Hassan said. “This bipartisan bill will improve the federal government’s ability to detect compromised technology before it is purchased and take critical steps to mitigate future attacks.”
Training and preparing federal acquisitions employees to recognize and mitigate these growing threats is an essential step in preventing hostile actors from compromising America’s national security. Recent cybersecurity supply chain attacks targeted vulnerabilities in SolarWinds and Microsoft Exchange software, highlighting the need for robust technological supply chain security and the importance of ensuring agency personnel responsible for managing these resources are well versed and up-to-date on cybersecurity threats and other attempts to steal sensitive or valuable information.
Hassan is leading bipartisan efforts to strengthen national security, including by bolstering cybersecurity across all levels of government. Recently, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it was creating a permanent bug bounty cybersecurity program based on the results of the pilot program created by Senators Hassan and Rob Portman’s (R-OH) Hack DHS Act that was signed into law in 2018. Additionally, the bipartisan infrastructure law will help to strengthen supply chains and includes Senator Hassan’s measure to create a state and local cybersecurity grant program.