Businesses will get legal guidelines this year on how to secure their pieces of cyberspace, but lawmakers aren't giving details yet.

Forthcoming cybersecurity legislation will be "meaningful regulatory approach to securing private-sector critical infrastructure" says Representative Adam Putnam (R-Florida), who chairs a Congressional subcommittee dealing with cybersecurity.

Because many members of Congress don't seem to recognize the potential threat of cyber attacks, the law Putnam has in mind will not be as wide-ranging as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which governs accounting procedures at public companies.

"There are a couple of areas where I believe the subcommittee will be drafting bills towards the end of this year that would impact the private sector," Putnam said at an e-government and cybersecurity event here this week. "We hope to begin that process before a major catastrophe. We would like to be on the front side of that."

[ Read more ]