Warner unveils bill to restore cyber information-sharing program funding

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., is introducing legislation to permanently fund a cybersecurity information-sharing program used by thousands of state, local, tribal and territorial governments, after the Trump administration ended federal support for the effort last year.

The measure would require the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to provide funding for the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or MS-ISAC, a nonprofit-run program that offers services like threat intelligence and incident response assistance to roughly 19,000 government entities nationwide.

Under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, DHS terminated CISA’s funding agreement with the Center for Internet Security, which operates MS-ISAC, and barred certain federal grant funds from being used for membership fees. Critics argued the move weakened a key mechanism for sharing cyber threat information with smaller governments that often lack dedicated cybersecurity resources.

Read more at NextGov/FCW