Cybersecurity Awareness Month

For Immediate Release                                      Contact: Courtney Mattison: (202) 525-7492                                              

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) welcomes Cybersecurity Awareness Month as a wake up for Capitol Hill. It’s fitting the month is shared with Halloween as American’s devices and national security are under threat from haunting hackers and spooky foreign adversaries. Congress continues to drop the ball and not make cybersecurity a priority.

Politicians too often ignore cybersecurity concerns that conflict with their policy desires with antitrust legislation like the Open App Markets Act and American Innovation and Choice Online Act haunting Capitol Hill. These bills continue to be reintroduced despite spooky cybersecurity implications and resounding opposition to weakening America’s global technology dominance. TPA urges lawmakers to put cybersecurity above politics as American devices, companies, and information are increasingly targeted.

Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) Executive Director Patrick Hedger offered the following comments:

“The importance of cybersecurity cannot be overstated.  Critical systems are always under attack from criminals and rogue nations.  Cybersecurity Awareness Month shows that actions speak louder than words.  Unfortunately, many in Washington continue to only pay lip service towards cybersecurity. The Biden administration and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle continue to pursue policies that will harm private companies’ abilities to protect their consumers.

“From the new push for so-called ‘net neutrality’ rules to antitrust proposals such as the Open App Markets Act, there is a common thread of policymakers seeking to micromanage companies’ networks and services. While many assume stringent regulation should reduce consumer harms, the opposite is too often the truth. Inhibiting the abilities of companies to manage their product and service offerings the way they see fit, either through intense scrutiny or outright directives, will reduce proactive measures to keep consumers’ devices and data secure. If tightening cybersecurity practices at the margins invites intense regulatory headaches, companies will be dissuaded from doing beyond the bare minimum.”

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Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.