Melissa Hathaway's Nine Cybersecurity Bills to Watch

Melissa Hathaway probably knows more about what's going on with cybersecurity legislation before Congress than even the lawmakers who sponsor these bills; heck, she likely understands more about these measure than the key staffers who are the brains behind them.

Since leaving the White House last summer, Hathaway - who led President Obama's 60-day cyberspace review last year - has become involved in a variety of IT security ventures, including becoming a senior adviser at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affair at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. There she conducts research and writes about IT security. One of her projects is to track cybersecurity legislation before Congress.

Hathaway this past week completed a 31-page report documenting some 40 IT security bills before Congress. The report provides an analysis on the wide range of topics they address including organizational responsibilities; compliance and accountability; data accountability, personal data privacy, data breach handling and identity theft; cybersecurity education, research and development and grants; critical electric infrastructure protection and vulnerability analysis; international cooperation on cybercrime; and procurement, acquisition and supply-chain integrity.

Here are nine bills Hathaway characterized as "legislation to watch," along with her analysis of them...