An Analysis of Cybersecurity Legislation and Policy Creation on the State Level

Abstract

To best create an effective cybersecurity strategy, it is imperative to understand the policy discussions and trends on a federal and state level. Effective cybersecurity legislation is vital to maintaining our country’s infrastructure and protecting our citizenry. Since cybersecurity is often decided on the state level, states need to be aware of the trends in cybersecurity legislation. The purpose of this research was to conduct an analysis of cybersecurity policy from across the United States in an effort to assist the State-level understanding on their cybersecurity risk profile. This analysis included an examination of common trends in cybersecurity legislation. It involved researching cybersecurity policies from all 50 states and the federal government. After creating this baseline, the next phase of the research was to find and record relevant metadata for each policy. This data contained additional data, such as did it pass, who were the supporters, was it revised and other information that is useful to cybersecurity policy creators. The final goal of the research was to provide a searchable tool that could be utilized to fashion a successful cybersecurity bill and a summary of cybersecurity trends from 2011 to Spring 2018.