PRIVATE SECTOR REJOICE

Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) on Wednesday introduced a bill that would take steps to potentially allow private sector companies to strike back at hackers launching attacks against their operations.

The bipartisan bill would direct the Department of Homeland Security to conduct a study on what the potential benefits and risks may be of allowing companies to “hack back” in the event of an attack, actions that private sector groups are currently banned from undertaking.

Federal law only allows federal agencies to go on the offense against hackers, while all other groups are prohibited from any type of unauthorized access to other networks.

The bill was formally introduced on the heels of escalating cyberattacks, such as the SolarWinds hack, which involved Russian government-backed hackers exploiting a vulnerability in an update from IT group SolarWinds to compromise nine federal agencies and 100 private sector groups.