Dive Brief:

• The National Institute of Standards and Technology on Tuesday released a draft of its proposed cybersecurity framework for private sector critical infrastructure. The release of the voluntary guidelines was delayed by the government shutdown that ended Oct. 17.
• “The national and economic security of the United States depends on the reliable functioning of critical infrastructure,” according to the document. “Due to the increasing pressures from external threats, organizations responsible for critical infrastructure need to have a consistent and iterative approach to identifying, assessing, and managing cybersecurity risk.”
• The framework is the result of an executive order President Barack Obama issued in February.

Dive Insight:

Whether electric utilities and other industries will embrace the standards may depend on incentives yet to be proposed by the Obama administration, such as protections against lawsuits for companies whose networks are attacked. A final version of the cybersecurity framework will be issued in February.