December 21, 2022 11:00 a.m.

To ensure that government agencies can use data for research while protecting American’s privacy and security, on Tuesday, Senators Ron Wyden and Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, urged the National Science Foundation to secure American’s information within the National Secure Data Service platform, using advanced encryption technology.

In a letter to Sethuraman Panchanathan, Director of the National Science Foundation, the lawmakers wrote, “The NSDS platform will enable government agencies to collaborate by using data for research projects. This research will help policy makers to improve government programs, and will shed light on the effectiveness of federal policies”. Wyden and Portman said, “However, the NSDS program will only live up to its promise if it facilitates research while protecting American’s data from hackers, foreign spies and misuse by government agencies”.

The senators said to ensure identifiable data within the platform is inaccessible to any agency other than the one who originally provided it – including NSF itself – NSF should require agencies to encrypt the information using an encryption key only they control.

The release said if sensitive data is encrypted, individuals who appear in the data will be protected in the event of a hack or breach of the NSDS system.

An in-depth release is linked: https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-portman-urge-national-science-foundation-to-secure-americans-data-with-encryption-technology