PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 8, 2016
CONTACT: LARRY CLINTON | 202-236-0001 | lclinton@isalliance.org
June 8, 2016/WASHINGTON DC — The Internet Security Alliance will present its “McCurdy Award” for cybersecurity policy innovation to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein at the ISA’s annual spring salon dinner this evening.
The award is presented for innovation in crafting the first legislation approved by Congress and signed by the president that broadly address our national cybersecurity issues. For developing a bipartisan approach our nation’s critical cybersecurity issues. For recognizing the need to build a pragmatic public-private partnership addressing the unique but complimentary needs of the government and industry. And, for creatively and pragmatically integrating the use of market incentives, such as liability reform, into public policy thus motivating increased information sharing by both the public can private sector.
“Sens. Burr and Feinstein operated in a bipartisan fashion and succeeded in enacting the single most impactful law on cybersecurity ever passed by Congress,” said ISA President Larry Clinton. “They showed tremendous political courage, savvy, insight and energy in getting their bill through the Congress. ISA is delighted to recognize them for this outstanding achievement.”
The ISA’s McCurdy award is named for the ISA founder, Dave McCurdy, who served as chair of the House Intelligence Committee during the 1990s. ISA does not make the award on an annual basis, preferring to acknowledge only truly noteworthy instances of policy leadership on cybersecurity.
Previous McCurdy award winners include Melissa Hathaway, who was honored for her work on President Obama’s Cyber Space Policy Review; Congressman Mac Thornberry, for his work on the House GOP Task Force on Cyber Security in 2010; White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel for his work on President Barack Obama’s 2013 executive order on cybersecurity; and, Reps. Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger, who in 2014 jointly crafted the House version of the Information sharing legislation that Burr and Feinstein got through the Senate in 2015.
“Each of these outstanding leaders have had the vision to not only see the seriousness of the cyber threat, but had the insight to understand that this 21st century problem can’t be addressed with warmed over 20th century regulatory solutions. They each crafted innovative legislative proposals that utilized market forces to drive improved cybersecurity behavior and were able to see these creative efforts through in spite of a historically difficult legislative environment,” said ISA’s Clinton.
The Internet Security Alliance (ISA) is a unique multi-sector trade association, which provides thought leadership and strong public policy advocacy as well as business and technical services to its membership. The ISA represents enterprises from the aviation, banking, communications, defense, education, financial services, insurance, manufacturing, security, and technology industries.