S 592 — Cybersecurity Disclosure Act of 2019

Summary

Cybersecurity Disclosure Act of 2019 This bill directs the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue final rules requiring a registered issuer to disclose in its mandatory annual report or annual proxy statement whether any member of its governing body has expertise or experience in cybersecurity; and if no member has such expertise or experience, describe what other company cybersecurity aspects were taken into account by the persons responsible for identifying and evaluating nominees for the governing body.

Bill Text

• Introduced Introduced in Senate Current html February 28, 2019

Compared against current U.S. Code AI-generated reading aid — verify against the official bill.

The bill adds a new requirement for publicly traded companies to disclose cybersecurity expertise on their governing bodies.

• 15 U.S.C. § 78n

  SEC. 14C. CYBERSECURITY TRANSPARENCY. (a) Definitions.--In this section-- (1) the term `cybersecurity' means any action, step, or measure to detect, prevent, deter, mitigate, or address any cybersecurity threat or any potential cybersecurity threat; (2) the term `cybersecurity threat'-- (A) means an action, not protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, on or through an information system that may result in an unauthorized effort to adversely impact the security, availability, confidentiality, or integrity of an information system or information that is stored on, processed by, or transiting an information system; and (B) does not include any action that solely involves a violation of a consumer term of service or a consumer licensing agreement; (3) the term `information system'-- (A) has the meaning given the term in section 3502 of title 44, United States Code; and (B) includes industrial control systems, such as supervisory control and data acquisition systems, distributed control systems, and programmable logic controllers; (4) the term `NIST' means the National Institute of Standards and Technology; and (5) the term `reporting company' means any company that is an issuer-- (A) the securities of which are registered under section 12; or (B) that is required to file reports under section 15(d). (b) Requirement To Issue Rules.--Not later than 360 days after the date of enactment of this section, the Commission shall issue final rules to require each reporting company, in the annual report of the reporting company submitted under section 13 or section 15(d) or in the annual proxy statement of the reporting company submitted under section 14(a)-- (1) to disclose whether any member of the governing body, such as the board of directors or general partner, of the reporting company has expertise or experience in cybersecurity and in such detail as necessary to fully describe the nature of the expertise or experience; and (2) if no member of the governing body of the reporting company has expertise or experience in cybersecurity, to describe what other aspects of the reporting company's cybersecurity were taken into account by any person, such as an official serving on a nominating committee, that is responsible for identifying and evaluating nominees for membership to the governing body. (c) Cybersecurity Expertise or Experience.--For purposes of subsection (b), the Commission, in consultation with NIST, shall define what constitutes expertise or experience in cybersecurity using commonly defined roles, specialties, knowledge, skills, and abilities, such as those provided in NIST Special Publication 800-181, entitled `National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Cybersecurity Workforce Framework', or any successor thereto.

  This creates new requirements for reporting companies to disclose their governing body's cybersecurity expertise.

Action History

1. February 28, 2019

   Introduced in Senate

2. February 28, 2019

   Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S1595-1596)

3. February 28, 2019

   Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Hearings held.

4. June 11, 2019

   Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Hearings held. Hearings printed: S.Hrg. 116-118.

Sponsors

• Jack Reed · Primary

Subjects