Buried deep within a 2,009-page congressional document is a cybersecurity bill that could have a major impact on your personal data. These protections, while wholly inadequate, were the only reasons that many members of Congress who would’ve otherwise opposed Cisa voted for it.
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Sharp-eyed reporters spotted the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 in a spending bill that was approved Tuesday.
In a move that was supported by both the Republican majority in Congress and the Democratic White House, the bill-formerly-known-as-Cisa is now attached to the massive omnibus spending bill Congress has been negotiating for weeks, which is full of thousands of spending and tax provisions that have nothing to do with cybersecurity.
The tactic of moving the cyber bill with the omnibus has already drawn criticism from some privacy-minded lawmakers, civil liberties groups and digital rights advocates. In a letter sent to House members this week, a group of four colleagues from both sides of the aisle said they won’t consider the omnibus until the cyber proposal is put before them.
Rya spokeswoman Ashlee Strong told TheBlaze that a version of these reforms have already passed the House and Senate.
“This “cybersecurity” bill was a bad bill when it passed the Senate and it is an even worse bill today”, Sen. “This bill fails on both counts”.
Because participating firms would be free from liability, however, privacy advocates and other opponents have said CISA would give corporations the green-light to give away user data – a trade-off between security and privacy that has become a routine component in conversations between Washington and Silicon Valley with regards to revamping US cyber policies in the face of mounting national security concerns brought by state-sponsored hackers. The bill grants companies immunity from shareholder and consumer data-sharing lawsuits.
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The letter said any cybersecurity legislation attached to a “must-pass” government funding bill should include several safeguards, such as, “Clearly establishing [Department of Homeland Security] as the sole (present and future) portal for information sharing”. It’s a disingenuous attempt to quietly expand the US government’s surveillance programs, and it will inevitably lead to law enforcement agencies using the data they collect from companies through this program to investigate, prosecute, and incarcerate more people, deepening injustices in our society while failing to improve security.
