Last Thursday, the House Intelligence Committee voted the “Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act” (CISPA) out of committee by a vote of 18-2. The bill is headed for a floor vote this week.
In a nutshell, CISPA allows for private sector companies such as Internet service providers and telecommunications companies to share information with federal agencies about online cyber-threats and attacks.
The bill is controversial because consumer protection groups and civil liberty organizations are concerned that the private sector will share user information with federal enforcement agencies. An additional concern is that this information can be shared with the National Security Agency (NSA), which is part of the Department of Defense. Civil liberty groups argue that the military shouldn’t be able to operate on U.S. soil against American citizens. Moreover, under CISPA, companies would receive immunity from liability for sharing warrantless information about cyber-threats and attacks with U.S. enforcement agencies. An online petition has over 100,000 online signatures opposing the legislation.
As a result, CISPA has gone through several iterations through amendments. The current CISPA draft would require any information provided to the federal government to be stripped of any personally identifying information belonging to users. In addition, the new regulation would not “expressly require” private companies to share cyber-threat and attack information with NSA. However, it would also not prohibit private sector companies from sharing cyber-threat and attack information with NSA.
Currently, the industry is divided over whether to support or oppose the legislation. Companies such as Verizon, IBM, McAfee and Oracle support CISPA. On the other end, Reddit is leading the charge against CISPA and is urging tech giants such as Google and Twitter to oppose the proposed law.
The bill still has to survive a floor vote this week. The Obama administration has indicated that it still has concerns with the current iteration of CISPA. Stakeholders on both side of the issue are mobilizing in anticipation of the vote.
