Congress Finally Passes the Cybersecurity Act of 2015

After seeking to pass broad private sector cybersecurity legislation for a number of years, Congress finally passed the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 (Cybersecurity Act) as Division N of theConsolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 (Omnibus).

The Cybersecurity Act is the result of a conference between the Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Intelligence and Homeland Security Committees, each of which passed cybersecurity information sharing bills this year:

• Senate Intelligence: S. 754, Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 
• House Intelligence: H.R. 1560, Protecting Cyber Networks Act 
• House Homeland Security: H.R. 1731, National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act of 2015