EPIC Testifies at House Hearing on Securing Communications Networks

EPIC Executive Director and President Alan Butler will testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology in a hearing regarding “Safeguarding Americans’ Communications: Strengthening Cybersecurity in a Digital Era.”

“Securing our nation’s communications systems is essential to protect national security, public safety, consumers, and our economy,” Butler will tell members of the Subcommittee. “This Subcommittee has the opportunity to promote important legislation to establish privacy and data security protections that are desperately needed across the digital ecosystem. And there is a range of other important work ahead to implement the National Security strategy and develop strong cybersecurity standards, to properly align industry incentives to invest in robust cybersecurity practices, and to better secure the devices and systems that play such an essential role in our day-to-day lives.”

Butler will advocate for the enactment of a strong and comprehensive privacy and data security law like the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA). Watch the hearing at 10 AM ET here.

Mr. Butler released the following statement about the hearing:

“Americans are facing a barrage of attacks on their personal data, their private communications, and their identities. Our communications networks and services are vulnerable, and breaches of those systems fuel identity theft, threats to public safety, and risks to national security. This is an urgent problem and we are glad to see the subcommittee take this up, especially given the committee’s prior work on comprehensive privacy legislation and the opportunity to take that up in 2024.”

EPIC has previously written about the need for a comprehensive privacy law as well as the role privacy principles like data minimization and data security must play in the White House’s National Cybersecurity Strategy.