I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2154
To establish a cybersecurity literacy campaign, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH14, 2025
Mr. O
BERNOLTE(for himself and Ms. MCCLELLAN) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To establish a cybersecurity literacy campaign, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘American Cybersecu-4
rity Literacy Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 6
It is the sense of the Congress that the United States 7
has a national security and economic interest in promoting 8
cybersecurity literacy amongst the general public. 9
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SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF CYBERSECURITY LITERACY 1
CAMPAIGN. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Assistant Secretary shall de-3
velop and conduct a cybersecurity literacy campaign 4
(which shall be available in multiple languages and for-5
mats, if practicable) to increase the knowledge and aware-6
ness of the American people of best practices to reduce 7
cybersecurity risks. 8
(b) C
AMPAIGNREQUIREMENTS.—In carrying out 9
subsection (a), the Assistant Secretary shall— 10
(1) educate the American people on how to pre-11
vent and mitigate cyberattacks and cybersecurity 12
risks, including by— 13
(A) instructing the American people on 14
how to identify— 15
(i) phishing emails and messages; and 16
(ii) secure websites; 17
(B) instructing the American people about 18
the benefits of changing default passwords on 19
hardware and software technology; 20
(C) encouraging the use of cybersecurity 21
tools, including— 22
(i) multi-factor authentication; 23
(ii) complex passwords; 24
(iii) anti-virus software; 25
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(iv) patching and updating software 1
and applications; and 2
(v) virtual private networks; 3
(D) identifying the devices that could pose 4
possible cybersecurity risks, including— 5
(i) personal computers; 6
(ii) smartphones; 7
(iii) tablets; 8
(iv) Wi-Fi routers; 9
(v) smart home appliances; 10
(vi) webcams; 11
(vii) internet-connected monitors; and 12
(viii) any other device that can be con-13
nected to the internet, including mobile de-14
vices other than smartphones and tablets; 15
(E) encouraging Americans to— 16
(i) regularly review mobile application 17
permissions; 18
(ii) decline privilege requests from mo-19
bile applications that are unnecessary; 20
(iii) download applications only from 21
trusted vendors or sources; and 22
(iv) consider a product’s life cycle and 23
the developer or manufacturer’s commit-24
ment to providing security updates during 25
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a connected device’s expected period of use; 1
and 2
(F) identifying the potential cybersecurity 3
risks of using publicly available Wi-Fi networks 4
and the methods a user may utilize to limit 5
such risks; and 6
(2) encourage the American people to use re-7
sources to help mitigate the cybersecurity risks iden-8
tified in this subsection. 9
(c) A
SSISTANTSECRETARYDEFINED.—In this sec-10
tion, the term ‘‘Assistant Secretary’’ means the Assistant 11
Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Informa-12
tion. 13
Æ
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