Cybersecurity bill draws praise, concern
After years of political wrangling, the US Senate on Tuesday that has drawn praise from business groups and criticism from聽privacy advocates.
In a 74-to-21 vote, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act moved closer to becoming law, a measure proponents say will spur private business and government agencies to share information in a quest to ebb the assault of hackers 鈥� an increasingly common occurrence for both business and government alike.
Critics counter that the bill聽would allow the government to violate privacy boundaries, and that it would not in practice prevent security breaches from hackers at all.
The thinking behind the bill is that sharing information would better prepare the country against hackers, although the bill does not clearly define how information collected would be disseminated or who would ultimately be in control.
The US Chamber of Commerce, the country鈥檚 largest business group, lobbied hard for the bill, stating on its website that to overcome obstacles arising from cybersecurity threats,聽.
鈥淚n an interconnected world, economic security and national security are linked,鈥� said Thomas J. Donohue, the chamber's CEO. 鈥淭o maintain a strong and resilient economy, we must protect against the cyber attacks.
A bevy of big companies and trade associations also supported the bill.
鈥淭he legislation passed by the Senate today bolsters our cyber defenses by providing the liability protections needed to ,鈥� in a statement released by the Telecommunications Industry Association and quoted in The Guardian.
Technology companies, such as Twitter, Apple and Google, opposed the bill on the grounds it would increase government spying, while the protections currently tendered in the bill do not go far enough to actually work.
The Guardian reported a group of university law professors recently to the Senate, saying the bill would override gains made through the already-installed Freedom of Information Act.
鈥淭he Freedom of Information Act would be neutralized,鈥� the professors wrote. 鈥淲hile a cornucopia of federal agencies could have access to the public鈥檚 heretofore private-held information with little fear that such sharing would ever be known to those whose information was shared.鈥�
Edward Snowden lent his opinion to the bill鈥檚 passage, stating on Twitter that if passed into law it would limit Internet freedoms and give 鈥渃ompanies legal immunity for violating privacy laws if they also give your data to the government, 鈥� a reference to a stipulation that would help companies sharing information with the Central Intelligence Agency or Federal Bureau of Investigation protection to avoid legal repercussions.
With a similar bill already having passed in the House in April, both chambers would have to merge their legislation and vote again before President Obama could sign it into law.聽
Whether Obama will veto such a bill depends on if its final passage , said Nathan White, a senior manager with the digital rights group, Access, to the National Review. 聽 聽
"The administration's policy up to this point has been very clear," he said. "It has supported CISA鈥檚 process but expressed concerns that it is currently dangerous to cybersecurity."
