CISPA looks to be headed the way of SOPA.
The White House issued a statement Wednesday threatening to veto the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, the controversial bill designed to allow more sharing of the private sector’s digital threat data with government agencies like the Department of Homeland Security. The president’s advisors now say they fear the bill’s vague language would allow too much of users’ private information to be leaked to the government and that it doesn’t go far enough to offer real defenses against digital attacks, and they say they’ll recommend Obama veto the bill if it’s passed by Congress.
“Cybersecurity and privacy are not mutually exclusive. Moreover, information sharing, while an essential component of comprehensive legislation, is not alone enough to protect the Nation’s core critical infrastructure from cyber threats,” the statement reads. “The Administration looks forward to continuing to engage with the Congress…to enact cybersecurity legislation to address these critical issues. However, for the reasons stated herein, if H.R. 3523 were presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.”
The administration’s strongly-worded statement is only the latest voice to come out against the bill, which has been expected to reach a vote in the House later this week. The bill’s detractors already included eighteen House democrats, Senator Ron Paul, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology, a collection of more than fifty information security practitioners and professors, and 760,000 signers of a petition at Avaaz.org.
The White House’s statement also takes the opportunity to plug the Lieberman-Collins bill, which would set new standards for the protection of critical infrastructure against cyber attack. “The Congress must also include authorities to ensure our Nation’s most vital critical infrastructure assets are properly protected by meeting minimum cybersecurity performance standards,” the statement reads. “Industry would develop these standards collaboratively with the Department of Homeland Security. Voluntary measures alone are insufficient responses to the growing danger of cyber threats.”
Resistance has risen against CISPA even faster than it did against
the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, earlier this year. Though the two
bills had little in common–SOPA threatened a filtering regime to block
rogue websites, while CISPA proposed surveillance and data-sharing
measures–both drew have drawn attacks from both sides of Congress, a
massive backlash from Internet users, and eventually the disapproval of
the president. After several attempted revisions, SOPA was indefinitely
tabled. At this point, it looks like CISPA faces a similar fate.
The White House issued a statement Wednesday threatening to veto the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, the controversial bill designed to allow more sharing of the private sector’s digital threat data with government agencies like the Department of Homeland Security. The president’s advisors now say they fear the bill’s vague language would allow too much of users’ private information to be leaked to the government and that it doesn’t go far enough to offer real defenses against digital attacks, and they say they’ll recommend Obama veto the bill if it’s passed by Congress.
“Cybersecurity and privacy are not mutually exclusive. Moreover, information sharing, while an essential component of comprehensive legislation, is not alone enough to protect the Nation’s core critical infrastructure from cyber threats,” the statement reads. “The Administration looks forward to continuing to engage with the Congress…to enact cybersecurity legislation to address these critical issues. However, for the reasons stated herein, if H.R. 3523 were presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.”
The administration’s strongly-worded statement is only the latest voice to come out against the bill, which has been expected to reach a vote in the House later this week. The bill’s detractors already included eighteen House democrats, Senator Ron Paul, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology, a collection of more than fifty information security practitioners and professors, and 760,000 signers of a petition at Avaaz.org.
The White House’s statement also takes the opportunity to plug the Lieberman-Collins bill, which would set new standards for the protection of critical infrastructure against cyber attack. “The Congress must also include authorities to ensure our Nation’s most vital critical infrastructure assets are properly protected by meeting minimum cybersecurity performance standards,” the statement reads. “Industry would develop these standards collaboratively with the Department of Homeland Security. Voluntary measures alone are insufficient responses to the growing danger of cyber threats.”
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