^[1]As the National Institute of Standards and Technology ^[2] makes headway in preparing standards required by FISMA, a regulatory watchdog in the District is expressing concerns both about the increasing burden on industry and whether FISMA standards will include the private sector in thwarting a financial cyber attack.

The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness ^[3], founded and managed by former regulatory officials of the White House Office of Management and Budget, published on its Interactive Public Docket ^[4] two recent articles in The Wall Street Journal in an effort to highlight FISMA and FedRAMP worries.

The first article cites how former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff worries about insidious Stuxnet-type worms that might infiltrate financial networks and wreak havoc slowly and methodically by corrupting financial data without creating immediate alarm.

The second article discusses how Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Calpers (D-Del.) have introduced the Cybersecurity and Internet Freedom Act of 2011, which intends to set up the essential point of coordination across the executive branch in the event of devastating cyber attack against U.S. critical infrastructure.

Established in 1996, after the passage of the Congressional Review Act, CRE provides Congress with independent analyses of agency regulations. It’s main goals are to ensure the public has access to data and information used to develop federal regulations and that information federal agencies disseminate to citizens is of the highest quality.