Thread: Cyber-security bill Cispa passes US House

26 April 2012 Last updated at 19:52 ET

Cyber-security bill Cispa passes US House

Critics of the congressional bill say its definition of 'cyber threat' is too vague

The US House of Representatives has passed a cyber-security bill amid a veto threat from President Barack Obama.

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (Cispa), would allow the government to access web users' private data on suspicion of a cyber threat.

It would also allow easier information-sharing between security agencies and private web firms.

Advocacy groups claim that it is aimed at file-sharers rather than hackers.

They also raised concerns about the transparency of the act.

In a statement on Wednesday, the White House said Mr Obama would veto the act if it reached his desk.

The administration said the law repeals "important provisions of electronic surveillance law without instituting corresponding privacy, confidentiality and civil liberties safeguards".

The bill passed the House on Thursday by a margin of 248 votes to 168. Cyber-security legislation is also being considered in the US Senate, but its bill differs considerably from Cispa and is not yet scheduled for a vote.

The House bill won support from tech industry figureheads whereas an earlier piece of legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) failed after web firms lined up with activists to criticise it.

Facebook, AT&T, Intel, Verizon, and Microsoft were among some 800 firms who indicated they would back the latest bill.

Writing on Facebook's corporate blog a week ago the firm's vice-president of US public policy, Joel Kaplan, said Cispa "would impose no new obligations" on Facebook to share data with anyone.

It also "ensures that if we do share data about specific cyber threats, we are able to continue to safeguard our users' private information, just as we do today," he added.

BBC News - Cyber-security bill Cispa passes US House

House passes CISPA bill

Speaker Boehner said that the White House was in 'a camp all by themselves.' | POLITICO Staff

By KEITH PERINE and JENNIFER MARTINEZ | 4/26/12 7:17 PM EDT

The House passed the controversial CISPA cybersecurity bill on Thursday, defying a White House veto threat and throwing the issue squarely into the Senate’s lap.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said the bill was “needed to prepare for countries like Iran and North Korea so that they don’t do something catastrophic to our networks here in America.”

The final tally was 248-168, enough to pass the bill but not enough to override the threatened veto. Forty-two Democrats voted for the measure, and 28 Republicans voted against it.

The administration and Democratic critics opposed the bill because of privacy and civil liberties concerns. The other main sticking point was that, unlike a Senate bill by Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), CISPA would not mandate new security requirements for a critical infrastructure network.

But the measure enjoyed support from some Democrats — who weren’t happy with their colleagues’ opposition to the bill, nor with the White House.

“It was disappointing, I think it could have been handled differently,” Rep. Jim Langevin, (D-R.I.), a CISPA co-sponsor, said of the White House move. “To do it at this stage I don’t think it was very helpful to get an information-sharing bill through.”

Langevin and other supportive Democrats say CISPA is needed to counter the possibility of a major cyberattack.

"This is not a perfect bill, but the threat is great," Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), Rogers’s chief Democratic ally, said on the House floor on Thursday.

Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that the White House was in "a camp all by themselves." Nevertheless, most Democrats voted against the bill.

“CISPA would trample the privacy and consumer rights of our citizens while leaving our critical infrastructure vulnerable,” an administration official said Thursday in response to Boehner. “We need Congress to address this critical national and economic security challenge while respecting the values of freedom, privacy, openness and innovation so fundamental to our nation.”

The House adopted several amendments to the bill before passing it, including one by Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) that added a five-year sunset to the bill.

But lawmakers voted to reject a motion to recommit by Rep. Ed Perlmuttter, who sought to add language specifying that nothing in the bill could be construed to allow employers and the government from mandating that employees and job applicants disclose confidential passwords without a court order. The defeated motion also would have added language saying that nothing in the bill could allow the government from blocking access to the Web through “the creation of a national Internet firewall similar to the ‘Great Internet Firewall of China.'”

The tech sector immediately applauded the House action on Thursday.

“We strongly urge the Senate to swiftly take up this issue because the United States cannot afford to wait to improve our nation’s cybersecurity posture,” TechAmerica CEO Shawn Osborne said in a statement. “Standing pat will only further risk our national security.”

But civil liberterians were unhappy with the outcome.

“Cybersecurity does not have to mean abdication of Americans’ online privacy. As we’ve seen repeatedly, once the government gets expansive national security authorities, there’s no going back,” ACLU legislative counsel Michelle Richardson said. “We encourage the Senate to let this horrible bill fade into obscurity.”

House passes CISPA bill - Keith Perine and Jennifer Martinez - POLITICO.com

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