Shaheen, Hassan Introduce Legislation to Protect America’s Small Businesses From Cybersecurity Threats

(Washington, DC) — U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Chair of the Emerging Threats Subcommittee, joined U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) to reintroduce legislation this week that would protect America’s small businesses from the threats of cyber-crimes.  

“As we see more complex cyberattacks targeting our small businesses, it is imperative that Congress take meaningful steps to empower small business owners with the tools they need to protect their businesses, staff and customers from these nefarious attacks. That is precisely what our bipartisan legislation seeks to do,” said Senator Shaheen. “The Small Business Cyber Training Act would create a training program through the Small Business Administration to support our local small business development centers (SBDCs) in their efforts to educate small businesses on safeguarding their cyber networks. New Hampshire SBDCs provide crucial advising and education to help Granite State entrepreneurs, so this legislation would be a very worthwhile investment. I’ll continue to work across the aisle to help advance this legislation in the Senate.” 

"Small businesses must have the knowledge and resources to protect against the threat of cyberattacks, especially as they work to recover from the pandemic,” said Senator Hassan. "This bipartisan bill will help small businesses better prepare to address this growing threat, and I will continue working across the aisle to equip small businesses with the tools that they need to respond to cyber threats.” 

The Small Business Cyber Training Act would require the Small Business Administration to establish a training program for small business development centers (SBDCs) to prepare counselors in cyber planning assistance. Specifically, the bill would require SBDCs to have employees certified in cyber strategy counseling for small businesses.  

A one-pager can be found here.