Sony Hacking Shows Need for Cyber Legislation

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Army Gen. Martin Dempsey said the recent hacking of Sony Pictures by North Korea “confirmed” the need for new cyber legislation. Speaking on “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace,” Dempsey said he and Army Gen. Keith Alexander, then-head of the National Security Agency, started pushing two years ago for legislation that “account for two things that are vulnerabilities in our ability to protect ourselves in cyber,” including “some level of … cyber standards” and “the ability of the government and [the private sector] to share information about attacks, whether it’s the signatures of attacks or the actual occurrence of attacks.” Dempsey said those efforts failed at the time, noting the US does not have the advantage in the cyber domain. “It’s a level playing field, and that makes this Chairman very uncomfortable,” said Dempsey. (Pentagon report.)