More than two dozen privacy and civil liberty organizations, companies, and security experts jointly signed a letter to President Obama, encouraging him to veto the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2014.
The groups—including Reddit, Freedome of Press Foundation, Competitive Enterprise Institute, American Civil Liberties Union and the Libertarian Party—said the measure is a rehash of previous legislation and still does not address privacy concerns that led to other bills fizzling out.
“Congress has continued efforts to pass legislation to further increase the amount of information transferred between the government and the private sector without addressing other important aspects of cybersecurity,” according to the letter.
The groups said the bill also ignores Obama’s preference of using a civilian agency to lead cybersecurity efforts rather than the”automatic and simultaneous transfer of cybersecurity information to US intelligence agencies, like the National Security Agency.”
The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) fails to provide privacy protections for Internet users and could potentially harm journalists and whistleblowers, according to the letter. “The bill also offers broad immunity protections for corporations, disincentivizing companies from protecting the privacy of users and limiting access to remedy for those whose rights are impacted.”
The bill was passed earlier this month by the Senate Intelligence Committee in closed session. Sponsored by committee chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and ranking minority member Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., CISA would encourage sharing classified and unclassified cyber threat information between companies and the government.
In opposition to CISA, many of the same groups wrote a letter in June to oppose the bill.
“In the year since Edward Snowden revealed the existence of sweeping surveillance programs, authorized in secret and under classified and flawed legal reasoning, Americans have overwhelmingly asked for meaningful privacy reform and a roll back of the surveillance state created since passage of the Patriot Act,” the letter read. “This bill would do exactly the opposite.”
CISA must be approved by the full Senate and reconciled with similar legislation that passed the House of Representatives in April.
Chad Hemenway is Managing Editor of Advisen News. He has more than 15 years of journalist experience at a variety of online, daily, and weekly publications. He has covered P&C insurance news since 2007, and he has experience writing about all P&C lines as well as regulation and litigation. Chad won a Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Single Article in 2014 for his coverage of the insurance implications of traumatic brain injuries and Best News Coverage in 2013 for coverage of Superstorm Sandy. Contact Chad at 212.897.4824 or [email protected].
