PRECISE Act of 2012

Promoting and Enhancing Cybersecurity and Information Sharing Effectiveness Act of 2012 or the PRECISE Act of 2012 - (Sec. 2) Amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to direct the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) to perform necessary activities to facilitate the protection of federal systems and to assist critical infrastructure owners and operators, upon request, in protecting their critical infrastructure information systems, including by: (1) conducting risk assessments and providing technical assistance; (2) assisting in fostering the development of essential information security technologies and capabilities for protecting federal systems and critical infrastructure information systems; (3) assisting in efforts to mitigate communications and information technology supply chain vulnerabilities; (4) supporting nationwide awareness and outreach efforts to educate the public; and (5) conducting exercises, simulations, and other activities designed to support and evaluate the national cyber incident response plan.

Directs the Secretary, at the direction of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to: (1) conduct targeted risk assessments and operational evaluations for federal systems, which may include threat, vulnerability, and impact assessments and penetration testing; (2) provide for the use of consolidated intrusion detection, prevention, or other protective capabilities and associated countermeasures for the purpose of protecting federal systems from cybersecurity threats; (3) assess and foster the development of information security technologies and capabilities for use and dissemination through DHS and to be made available across multiple agencies; (4) designate an entity within DHS to receive reports and information about cybersecurity incidents, threats, and vulnerabilities affecting federal systems; and (5) provide incident detection, analysis, mitigation, and response information and remote or on-site technical assistance for federal systems.

Authorizes the Secretary to acquire, intercept, retain, use, and disclose communications and other system traffic transiting to or from, or stored on, federal systems and to deploy countermeasures with regard to such communications and system traffic for cybersecurity purposes (cybersecurity operational activities) if the Secretary certifies that: (1) such acquisitions, interceptions, and countermeasures are reasonably necessary for protecting federal systems from cybersecurity threats; (2) the content of communications will be collected and retained only when the communication is associated with a known or reasonably suspected cybersecurity threat and communications and system traffic will not be subject to the operation of a countermeasure unless associated with such threats; (3) information obtained pursuant to cybersecurity operational activities will only be retained, used, or disclosed to protect federal systems from cybersecurity threats, to mitigate against such threats, or for law enforcement purposes with the Attorney General's approval when the information is evidence of a crime; (4) notice has been provided to users of federal systems concerning the potential for acquisition, interception, retention, use, and disclosure of communications and other system traffic; and (5) such activities are implemented pursuant to policies and procedures that have been reviewed and approved by the Attorney General.

The summary continues for 15 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov

Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Reported to House amended, Part I" stage on July 11, 2012. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.

Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.