The Senate on Wednesday passed a bipartisan bill to protect ocean research vessels from increasing cyberattacks.
S. 318, the “Accelerating Networking, Cyberinfrastructure and Hardware for Oceanic Research (ANCHOR) Act,” passed by unanimous consent. It would require the National Science Foundation to develop a plan to improve cybersecurity and telecommunications for the Academic Research Fleet.
That fleet, 17 vessels in all, conducts research on the ocean floor, Great Lakes and polar regions. Researchers say the vessels, which house laboratories, are crucial to understanding marine life and climate change.
Sponsor Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) has said that ships in the fleet are “in desperate need of new infrastructure and maintenance, especially with foreign cyberattacks targeting naval vessels on the rise.”
