Washington, D.C. (10/17/2022) – October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and as tensions with countries like Russia and North Korea continue to rise, it’s more important than ever to boost U.S. cyber defenses. However, while leaders in the White House have recently pushed to strengthen U.S. cybersecurity, highlighting the need to secure critical infrastructure, protect Americans’ privacy from malicious actors, and strengthen cybersecurity against foreign cyber attacks, some members of Congress are working to pass the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (S. 2992), a bill that would undermine U.S. national security.
Here’s how S. 2992 would harm U.S. national security.
1. Russian and North Korean hackers have become increasingly aggressive, and top experts have warned about additional state-sponsored cyber attacks sanctioned by Putin against American infrastructure. S. 2992 would hamstring top U.S. companies from protecting Americans from cyber attacks by exposing cybersecurity secrets to bad actors.
2. S. 2992 would give companies linked to Vladimir Putin and the CCP access to sensitive American intellectual property and weaken critical U.S. infrastructure.
3. While S. 2992’s supporters claim the bill would help competition, it would allow Russian companies like Yandex and Chinese businesses like Baidu, Tik Tok, and Alibaba to expand unchallenged.
4. S. 2992 would force leading U.S. companies to hand over Americans’ private information to foreign businesses with ties to the Russian and Chinese governments.
Read more about the risks that S. 2992 poses for national security here.
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