WASHINGTON, D.C. – In remarks delivered on the Senate floor today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, highlighted the growing financial toll that cyber-attacks and data breaches are inflicting on Maine businesses. Senator King’s remarks come as Congress begins consideration of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 (CISA), legislation which seeks to strengthen U.S. cyber-defenses and protect businesses by incentivizing information-sharing practices. In his remarks, Senator King expressed support for the bill and encouraged his colleagues to pass it.

“In the state of Maine, we have to worry about it. I’ve been meeting with businesses large and small across the state. Every single one – with one exception – listed cyber-intrusion as one of their greatest issues,” Senator King said. “This is real in our state. Today, no business is immune. No individual is immune, and, of course, this country is not immune. The price of inaction is just too high.”

Over the past few years, Senator King’s office has been in frequent contact with a variety of Maine businesses in the health, defense, financial, education, and consumer products sectors to understand how cyber-attacks and data breaches impact them. According to the Maine Credit Union League, data breaches over the past year in have cost Maine credit unions approximately $2 million to replace debit and credit cards and an additional $500,000 to cover fraud. Furthermore, one Maine healthcare provider explained how it experiences thousands of attempts every day to steal confidential data. Those threats led Senator King in August to co-host a cyber-security briefing with the Department of Homeland Security and Maine State Chamber of Commerce in Portland to inform local businesses about best practices to protect them from cyber-attacks.

In fact, a report by McAfee and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) found that the annual cost to the global economy from cyber-crime is more than $445 billion. The report also estimated that the impact of cyber-crime could translate into more than 200,000 jobs lost in the U.S.

Senator King has consistently called for the U.S. to shore up its cyber-defenses, and, in his remarks today, underscored that recent cyber-attacks on government agencies and private companies have only highlighted the increased and immediate need for improved public-private cooperation to combat the growing threat.

“The United States is under attack. We are under attack – not a week ago or a month ago – but right at this moment. We are under attack from state actors, from terrorists, non-state actors, and from garden variety criminals. This cyber issue is one of the most serious that we face,” said Senator King. “We have had a number of warning shots, but none have been devastating. But that is just a matter of time – and that’s why we have to move this bill. It isn’t a comprehensive answer to this question, but it’s at least a piece of it. It’s a beginning.”

The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 would improve U.S. cyber-security by encouraging better information-sharing practices between the government and the private sector. The bill 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 bill protects personal privacy by requiring companies to remove personally identifiable information from cyber threat information before sharing, and it also makes sure the legislation is narrowly focused on cyber-security threats by limiting the government’s ability to use the information it receives.

In late September, Senator King pressed leading intelligence and defense community officials for a more comprehensive cyber-policy. Earlier this year, he renewed his call for the Senate to pass cyber-security legislation.

Video of Senator King’s full remarks on the floor are available HERE.

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