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SANS INSTITUTE
2013-04-20
US House Passes CISPA, But White House Has Said It Will Veto the Bill (April 16 & 18, 2013)
In a 288-127 vote on Thursday, April 18, the US House of Representatives passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). The bill would allow email and Internet providers to share information with the government. CISPA now goes to the Senate, where its fate is questionable given the White House's position that it will veto CISPA as-is. One of the administration's concerns is that CISPA does not require private entities to strip irrelevant personal data from information shared with government agencies or other private sector entities. Legislators tried, unsuccessfully, to add an amendment to CISPA which would have ensured that companies' terms of use and privacy policies would continue to be valid and enforceable. Critics of CISPA say it "poses a major threat to Fourth Amendment rights."
Administration's Statement on CISPA:
[Editor's Note (Murray): The House followed the money and ignored the popular opposition to this bill. CISPA offers sweeping immunity to business, far beyond what is necessary to accomplish its objectives. It invites abuse.]
Electronic Frontier Foundation
2013-04-18
U.S. House of Representatives Shamefully Passes CISPA; Internet Freedom Advocates Prepare for a Battle in the Senate
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/04/us-house-representatives-shamefully-passes-cispa-internet-freedom-advocates
Today, Internet freedom advocates everywhere turned their eyes to the U.S. House of Representatives as that legislative body considered the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act.
For the second year in a row, the House voted to approve CISPA, a bill that would allow companies to bypass all existing privacy law to spy on communications and pass sensitive user data to the government. EFF condemns the vote in the House and vows to continue the fight in the Senate.
"CISPA is a poorly drafted bill that would provide a gaping exception to bedrock privacy law,” EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl said. “While we all agree that our nation needs to address pressing Internet security issues, this bill sacrifices online privacy while failing to take common-sense steps to improve security."
The legislation passed 288-127, despite a veto threat from Pres. Barack Obama, who expressed serious concerns about the danger CISPA poses to civil liberties.
"This bill undermines the privacy of millions of Internet users,” said Rainey Reitman, EFF Activism Director. “Hundreds of thousands of Internet users opposed this bill, joining the White House and Internet security experts in voicing concerns about the civil liberties ramifications of CISPA. We’re committed to taking this fight to the Senate and fighting to ensure no law which would be so detrimental to online privacy is passed on our watch.”
EFF extends its deep gratitude to the many organization that have worked with us on this campaign and the tens of thousand of EFF members who helped us by contacting Congress to oppose CISPA. We look forward to continuing to fight by your side in defense of civil liberties as CISPA moves to the Senate.
Dan Goodin at Ars Technica pointed out a new Java exploit in-the-wild. It only hits those users who are not up-to-date with the latest versions of Java from Apple and Oracle. So if you use Java on the Internet and you have installed the latest update, you're fine. (^_^)
