Pelosi hails passage of cybersecurity bill

Pelosi said the U.S. has seen “increasing threats” to public
and private information technology infrastructure, and that the new act would
strengthen protections.

“It will help minimize the risks to our IT infrastructure
and decrease the potential for breaches that place our government, private
enterprise and economy in peril,” she said in a statement.

Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair this week
said hacker attacks on Google in China were a “wake-up call” for those who had
not taken the issue of cybersecurity seriously.

The House bill also sets up grants from the National Science
Foundation in the research areas of social and behavioral factors, including
human-computer interactions and identity management. It calls on the
foundation’s director to start a program awarding fellowships that encourage
young scientists and engineers to conduct postdoctoral research in
cybersecurity.