WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a pre-recorded video message played yesterday at the Maine Emergency Management Agency’s (MEMA) Eighth Annual Maine Partners in Emergency Preparedness Conference at the Augusta Civic Center, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) highlighted the importance of a coordinated and comprehensive strategy to protect Maine people and businesses from the threat of cyber-attacks. In his remarks, Senator King also commended the first-responders and industry professionals in attendance for convening the two-day conference to discuss preparedness for potential cyber-attacks and power grid failures. 

            “The MEMA Preparedness Conference could not come at a more important time,” Senator King said in his remarks. “I’m working virtually every day down here on some aspect of national security, and one of the most serious is the threat of cyber-attack, particularly on critical infrastructure. When you come out of the conference, if there are things we can do on the federal level to help – by all means let us know. Whether it’s talking to FEMA, talking to the intelligence agencies, [or to] homeland security, we want to be sure that there aren’t gaps that we could have prevented.”

As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator King has repeatedly emphasized the danger that cyber-attacks pose to America’s businesses and called for the U.S. to shore up its cyber defenses. Last August, Senator King co-hosted a cyber-security briefing with the Department of Homeland Security and  Maine State Chamber of Commerce in Portland to inform local businesses about the best practices that can help protect them from cyber-attacks.

In recent remarks before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator King pressed the Commander of U.S. Cyber Command and Director of the National Security Agency, Admiral Michael Rogers, to hasten the development of a cyber-deterrence strategy to help prevent adversaries from launching cyber-attacks against the United States.

Senator King also supported the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015, which the Senate passed last October and was signed into law as part of an omnibus spending bill in December. The law improves U.S. cyber-security by encouraging better information-sharing practices between the government and the private sector. It authorizes private companies to share cyber threat information with one another and the U.S. government on a purely voluntary basis; authorizes companies to monitor their computer networks and implement defensive measures to counter threats; provides liability protection for the sharing of cyber information for cyber-security purposes; and provides protections to ensure that sharing of cyber information does not allow for privacy intrusions. Importantly, the law protects personal privacy by requiring companies to remove personally identifiable information from cyber threat information before sharing, and it also makes sure the law is narrowly focused on cyber-security threats by limiting the government’s ability to use the information it receives.

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