July 1, 2014
Author: Wants to stay Anonymous
CISPA stands for ‘’Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act’’, introduced on November 30,
2011 by Representative Michael Rogers. It was then passed in the House of Representatives on
April 26, 2012 but was not accepted by the US Senate.
CISPA was criticized by advocates of Internet Privacy and Civil Liberties. According to them it
contains too less limits on how and when the US Government may monitor someone’s Internet
browsing history. They also fear that this law might be used to spy on the general public instead
of tracking malicious hackers.
Here is the opinin of Greg Nojem, Senior counsel at the Center or Democracy and
Technology: ‘’I think the Senate bill was much better placed when this issue came up before, it
limited law enforcement use to very specific circumstances, such as when there was the threat
of imminent death or body injury. This very broad criminal purpose creates the possibility that
cybersecurity information sharing becomes a backdoor wiretrap, because law enforcement
would be receiving information it otherwise would not get unless it showed probable cause. You
don’t want a world where very robust cybersecurity sharing turns into a law enforcement tool
that’s used to prosecute people for completely unrelated crime.’’
The bill also calls the governement to create some kind of notification to tell the companies
when they have shared data that doesn’t pertain to a specific cyber threat.
You can find the latest Senate CISPA bill here
