A Cybersecurity EZ Pass

US Cyber Command boss Army Gen. Keith Alexander on Tuesday called on Congress to pass legislation that would provide industry with the authority needed to share real-time information with the government and at the same time enable the Defense Department to bolster network security. Such legislation also should provide “liability protection” to industry, said Alexander during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on March 12. Although critical to defending DOD’s network, information sharing can prove challenging because some capabilities are classified. “So, we have to have a way of giving [industry] classified information that they would have to protect,” said Alexander. He compared such information swapping to driving on the turnpike with an E-Z pass—an electronic toll-paying device. “We’re telling the Internet providers, if you see a red car, tell us that you saw the red car, where you saw it, and where it’s going,” he said. “In cyberspace, it would be that they saw this significant event going from this Internet address to this target address. And, they could tell us that at network speed, and they could stop that traffic,” he said. (Alexander’s prepared testimony)