Cyber Defense Boosts Sought Under Senate Panel-Approved Bills

A Senate committee Wednesday approved bills that would expand the jurisdiction of the nation’s cybersecurity agency, secure open-source software, and offer training amid rising cyber threats.

The open-source software bill (S. 4913) is a response to a vulnerability discovered in December in the Log4j system found in millions of devices that is easy to exploit.

“The computers, phones, and websites that we use in our daily life contain open-source software that is vulnerable to cyberattack,” Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said at the markup.

The bill, sponsored by ...