The Internet has found a new enemy, in form of cyber-security legislation that has wide-ranging privacy implications. As far as the cyber-activists are concerned, the latest bill, CISPA, is worse than SOPA and PIPA.
As a refresher, SOPA, or Stop Online Piracy Act, was introduced in a sub-committee at the House of Representatives last fall. Despite tech giants such as Google and Facebook opposing the anti-piracy bill’s draconian measures which could curb innovation and restrict speech on the Web, it seemed on track to be approved in committee and to reach the House floor for a full vote by January or February. PIPA, or Protect Intellectual Property Act, was the Senate counterpart and had actually been approved by the committee back in May. After an Internet “blackout” on Jan. 18launched by online encyclopedia Wikipedia, link sharing site Reddit, and hundreds of other sites, the bills’ supporters agreed to withdraw support and revisit the issue.
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, focuses on defending companies from cyber-attacks and theft. While SOPA focused on giving broad tools to copyright holders and law enforcement authorities to go after pirates and copyright infringement, CISPA addresses how information would be shared between private companies and the government to catch malicious actors breaching networks to steal information or sabotaging systems.
“A bill to provide for the sharing of certain cyber threat intelligence and cyber threat information between the intelligence community and cyber-security entities, and for other purposes,” the bill said.
CISPA's Supporters
CISPA, if passed, would amend the 1947 National Security Act to allow the Director of National Intelligence to define how classified information would be shared. The bill does not specify which agencies Internet service providers would disclose customer data to, but there is a “very real possibility” that it could go to the National Security Agency or the Department of Defense’s Cybercommand, according to the Center of Democracy and Technology.
CISPA, if passed, would amend the 1947 National Security Act to allow the Director of National Intelligence to define how classified information would be shared. The bill does not specify which agencies Internet service providers would disclose customer data to, but there is a “very real possibility” that it could go to the National Security Agency or the Department of Defense’s Cybercommand, according to the Center of Democracy and Technology.
Read the full article here: http://securitywatch.pcmag.com/security/296402-forget-sopa-is-cispa-the-internet-s-new-enemy
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