PRESS RELEASE

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Gary Peters (D-MI), Chairman of the Homeland Safety and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Mike Braun (R-IN) launched bipartisan laws to raised put together federal workers to handle critical cybersecurity threats. The invoice improves the President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competitors, a nationwide cyber competitors that identifies and helps practice the very best cybersecurity expertise within the federal workforce, by increasing the competitors to incorporate operational expertise (OT) and industrial management programs (ICS). OT programs and ICS programs handle, monitor, and management industrial operations and are sometimes overshadowed within the cybersecurity world though they kind the spine of most main industries, utilities, and important infrastructure networks.    

“As international adversaries proceed to check our cybersecurity defenses, it’s extra vital than ever to have a well-equipped workforce that’s ready to repel all cybersecurity threats,” mentioned Senator Peters. “My bipartisan invoice will preserve the President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competitors on the innovative as they search to coach our cybersecurity workforce.”    

“The US prides itself in being a champion in cyber safety innovation, with many technical developments popping out of Indiana. I’m proudly cosponsoring this invoice that can improve our nationwide cybersecurity coaching competitors and finally defend American expertise from cyber-attacks from around the globe,” mentioned Senator Braun. 

Established in 2019, the President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competitors is a nationwide competitors to coach, determine, acknowledge, and reward the very best cybersecurity expertise within the federal workforce. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company (CISA) leads and hosts the President’s Cup as a part of their mission to increase the scale and capabilities of the U.S. cyber workforce.  

The bipartisan Industrial Management Programs Cybersecurity Competitors Act ensures the competitors consists of testing of expertise related to cybersecurity for operational expertise and industrial management programs to make sure federal cybersecurity professionals are capable of successfully work with and assist vital infrastructure sectors.  Most main industries and utility firms depend on OT and ICS to carry out vital duties akin to distributing energy throughout states, pumping water from reservoirs, and assembling automobiles in factories. Within the U.S., water utility firms particularly have seen their internet-connected ICS units focused and hacked by international adversaries. In November 2023, a minimum of 10 water utility firms throughout the U.S. had been hacked by an Iran-backed group, permitting the hackers to close down remotely managed units that monitor and regulate pumping station water stress.