The Verge - CISPA: Congress weighs privacy against 'cyber threats'

White House responds to petition against CISPA, calls for new bill that 'protects privacy'

2013-04-30T21:08:58Z

The White House has finally responded to a petition on its website signed by over 100,000 web users protesting the controversial cybersecurity bill CISPA, which was passed by the House of Representatives earlier this month. In its response to the petition, the White House comes out more forcefully against the bill, saying "This legislation still doesn't adequately address our fundamental concerns" about privacy, and pointing back to the veto threat issued by President Obama's office two weeks ago. However, the White House says that it still wants to see a new cybersecurity bill passed soon that allows companies and the government to share information about suspected "cyber threats." As the response issued today says, "Moving forward, the...

Senate Commerce Committee suggests CISPA may be dead in the water

2013-04-25T21:56:03Z

CISPA, the controversial cybersecurity legislation passed by the House of Representatives last week, may be effectively dead for now. US News has reported that the Senate Commerce Committee, headed by Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), doesn't see the bill being taken up by the Senate. Instead, the committee is working on separate bills that will address cybersecurity but hopefully avoid CISPA's privacy pitfalls. "We're not taking [CISPA] up," says a representative. "Staff and senators are divvying up the issues and the key provisions everyone agrees would need to be handled if we're going to strengthen cybersecurity. They'll be drafting separate bills."

After CISPA was given overwhelming approval in the House, it was referred to the...

House passes revamped CISPA cybersecurity bill amidst warnings of 'digital bombs'

2013-04-18T17:01:35Z

The US House of Representatives has once again passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which died in the Senate last year, by a margin of 288 to 127 after two days of debate. Over several hours, House opinion on the bill boiled down to whether the redesigned CISPA successfully addressed criticism from civil libertarians, and whether the threat of cyberattacks was grave enough to justify overriding lingering concerns. Representative Candice Miller (R-MI), a CISPA supporter, painted a dire picture of North Korean hackers taking down the US power grid, and Rep. Joe Heck (R-NV) warned that "our nation is under attack." Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX) went so far as to urge passage with a comparison to the Boston Marathon...

White House will oppose CISPA in its current form

2013-04-16T20:16:30Z

As an amended version of CISPA nears a vote on the House floor, the White House has once again stated that it has fundamental problems with the cybersecurity bill in its current form. In an official policy statement, the Obama Administration said that lawmakers had not addressed several issues regarding information-sharing and privacy, and that "if the bill, as currently crafted, were presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill." Instead, it urged a continuing dialog between Congress and the President in order to create a more acceptable version.

Specifically, the White House remains concerned that CISPA does not require companies to "take reasonable steps" to strip personal information when...

Cyber threats at the top of US intelligence report for the first time

2013-04-15T20:26:13Z

Cyber threats are the number one type of danger facing the United States, according to US national intelligence director James Clapper, the man in charge of coordinating the CIA and the NSA, among many other agencies. "As more and more state and nonstate actors gain cyber expertise, its importance and reach as a global threat cannot be overstated," Clapper said in testimony he gave to the House Intelligence Committee last week, as part of his office's annual global threat assessment report.

Lobbying group representing Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft sends letter to Congress in support of CISPA

2013-04-13T22:03:06Z

Amid warnings from the White House and civil liberties groups, a trade association representing Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Oracle, and other tech companies has come out in support of the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which passed a House committee vote this week. The Hill reports that the lobbying group, TechNet, sent a letter to the leaders of the House Intelligence panel on Wednesday praising lawmakers for their work on the bill, with TechNet CEO Rey Ramsey writing that "this bill recognizes the need for effective cybersecurity legislation." TechNet's executive council includes Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith, Cisco CEO John...

White House knocks amended CISPA bill for not addressing civil liberties concerns

2013-04-11T19:20:23Z

As US cybersecurity bill CISPA heads to the House Floor for a vote, the White House National Security Council has issued a statement suggesting that the President won't support it in its current form. "We continue to believe that information sharing improvements are essential to effective legislation," NSC spokesperson Caitlin Hayden told the Los Angeles Times in a statement. "But they must include privacy and civil liberties protections, reinforce the roles of civilian and intelligence agencies, and include targeted liability protections... We believe the adopted committee amendments reflect a good faith-effort to incorporate some of the Administration's important substantive concerns, but we do not believe these changes have addressed...

CISPA passes committee, will head to the House floor for a vote

2013-04-10T23:16:25Z

In an 18-2 vote behind closed doors, the House Intelligence Committee passed the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) cybersecurity bill. While the bill's final text is still unknown, The Hill reports that a number of amendments supported by the bill's sponsors were approved during markup, including one change that would require the government to remove personal information from "cyber threat" data they receive from private companies. The Hill also reports that the committee removed a provision from CISPA that would allow the government to use data from private companies for broad "national security purposes."

CISPA has been criticized by the public and tech industry companies including Facebook and...