SALON

Monday, Feb 11, 2013 8:52 PM UTC

CISPA creeps back to the House

The cybersecurity bill is back, but concerns about privacy breaches have not been resolved

By

Topics: cispa, Privacy, U.S. House of Representatives, Surveillance, ,

CISPA creeps back to the House (Credit: Shutterstock)

The House cyber-security bill that rang alarm bells throughout the civil liberties community when first proposed last year has made a troubling comeback. CISPA (the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act), which allows the National Security Agency and the military to collect your private Internet records, is being reintroduced in the House Wednesday.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and ranking member Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., will reintroduce the legislation, which passed the House last year but faced serious opposition over privacy concerns. The co-sponsors had planned to amend the bill to address concerns, but according to reports, it’s the same old CISPA. Via the ACLU:

That’s right, the same bill that allows companies to turn over your sensitive internet records directly to the NSA and the Department of Defense without requiring them to make even a reasonable effort to protect your privacy. The same bill that lets the government use the information it collects for cybersecurity purposes “to protect the national security of the United States”—a concept that is, of course, undefined and incredibly expansive. Here we are, ten months later, with a much-deserved veto threat from the administration, a smarter Senate alternative, and an Executive Order that will address part of the information-sharing issue—yet the House starts with the same old privacy-busting bill as before.

CISPA’s stated purpose is to aid government, especially the intelligence community, in investigating cyber threats and ensure the security of networks against cyber attack, especially those emanating from countries like China and Iran. However, privacy concerns arose from the fact that the legislation entails companies potentially handing over users’ private information and browsing histories to the government. Online activist Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide last month facing trumped up federal charges, once called CISPA akin to “the Patriot Act of the Internet.” He told Russia Today, “The thing about this bill is it doesn’t really have any protections against cyber threats … All it does is make people share their information. But that’s not going to solve the problem. What’s going to solve the problem is actual security measures, protecting the service in the first place, not spying on people after the fact.” Michelle Richardson echoed these concerns on the Hill last year when the bill was first proposed:

The very definition of what can be shared is incredibly broad, and includes sensitive and private information such as the content of emails or a person’s Internet use history. Companies are not required to even make an effort to disentangle sensitive but unnecessary information from the technical and useful data that government might really need.

Second, the bill allows companies to choose which government agency to share the information with, including the National Security Agency or other element of the Department of Defense. It is a long-held American value that the military doesn’t operate on U.S. soil against Americans, and allowing the NSA and DOD to collect information on average Americans turns that value on its head.

Recent cyber-attacks on the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal believed to emanate from China have stoked fears expressed for some months by the Obama administration that the U.S. is vulnerable to potentially serious threats. Leon Panetta last year warned that the country could face a “cyber-Pearl Harbor,” with crucial infrastructure vulnerable to attack. Panetta had urged CISPA be passed.

It is also believed that President Obama may pass an executive order this week, which calls for the creation of new standards on what private-sector companies must do to protect their computer systems from a cyber-security breach.

Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com. More Natasha Lennard.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations