Magaziner, Crenshaw introduce contingency plan for Critical Infrastructure Act

A bipartisan pair of lawmakers introduced legislation to require federal agencies to conduct assessments of critical infrastructure operations to better prepare for and respond to cyberattacks.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, and Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., introduced the Contingency Plan for Critical Infrastructure Act to mandate the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to develop a joint assessment of how the National Cyber Incident Response Plan would address risks posed to critical infrastructure.

The assessment would include evaluation of CISA’s capacity to remediate and respond to cyber incidents and support critical infrastructure owners and operators in transitioning to manual operating mode.

It would also look into the potential costs and challenges associated with mandating sectors to shift to manual operating mode and develop policy recommendations aimed at ensuring the continuous operation of critical infrastructure in scenarios where there is a widespread cyber incident affecting critical systems, Magaziner’s office said Monday.

In addition, the legislation requires FEMA to update its planning considerations for cyber incidents to include best practices and guidelines for essential personnel of critical infrastructure owners and operators.

The guidance would also help critical infrastructure owners and operators identify federal, state and local resources available to support them during a cyber incident and provide specific guidelines on how to respond to and remediate the effects of cyber incidents on industrial control devices.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) assisted a What’sUpNewp journalist with the reporting included in this story.