Government funding wasn’t the only thing to lapse on Wednesday — the Cybersecurity Information Act of 2015 also expired, leaving a gaping hole in a pillar of U.S. cyber defense.

Ironically, as the U.S. marked the first day of National Cybersecurity Month, this failure was already weakening the U.S. cyber posture and eroding 10 years of productive partnership between the private and public sectors. Worst of all, it sent a signal to malicious actors that the U.S. is distracted and vulnerable, encouraging adversarial cyber threat actors — including Chinese-backed entities — to ramp up their efforts to hack U.S. networks.

The Cybersecurity Information Act of 2015 — not to be confused with the similarly-named federal agency within the Department of Homeland Security — is a foundational cybers

See Full Page