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is not mandatory. It was intended to update for the digital age a requirement that companies report "material risks" that investors want to know.
• Rockefeller's measure would direct the SEC's five commissioners to make clear when companies must disclose cyber breaches and spell out steps they are taking to protect their computer networks from electronic intrusions.
• The SEC recently challenged Internet retailer Amazon's decision to omit from its 2011 annual report references to the online theft of customer data held by Zappos, an online shoe company owned by Amazon. Amazon eventually agreed to modify the statement slightly, according to correspondence between the company and the SEC. But the company still argued that the Zappos attack was not covered by the commission's cybersecurity guidance because it had no material impact on Amazon's business.
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• Russia takes center stage Saturday when the U.S. and other major powers gather in Geneva to try to map out a strategy to end the bloodshed in Syria, where activists say 14,000 people have died since the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March last year.
• The Americans have the diplomatic clout to arrange such a conference, bringing together the five veto-wielding U.N. Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. -- as well as Turkey and representatives of the Arab League, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar.
• But only the Russians have the influence with Assad to give this latest diplomatic initiative any chance of success.
• WHY IS RUSSIA SO IMPORTANT?
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• NEW YORK (AP) -- The U.S. and Europe want to deprive Iran of the oil income it needs to run its government and, most importantly, fund what they believe is an effort to build a nuclear weapon. Their efforts are entering a new phase this week.

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