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Government Surveillance

The Problems Experts And Privacy Advocates Have With The Senate’s Cybersecurity Bill

Forbes:

It took more than four years for the Senate to pass a cybersecurity bill. As the legislation grew stale amid compromise and contention on the Senate floor over the years, hackers continued to refine their criminal craft and develop more sophisticated methods of attack. As a result, the bill approved on Tuesday by a vote of 74 to 21 will likely be ineffective in the prevention of cybercrime but it has also been criticized for the litany of privacy issues it could potentially introduce. At its best, the bill—the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA)—has been hailed as a step in the right direction in the fight against cybercriminals.

“The threat information that can be shared is defined broadly and functionally. That’s kind of necessary because nobody knows how technology will evolve and what types of information might need to be shared in the future, so you don’t want strict technical definitions,” Greg Nojeim, the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Senior Counsel and Director of the Freedom, Security and Technology Project, said. “The counter balance to that should be strong use restrictions. If you are going to have a broad sharing authorization, at least have a strong use restriction so that which you share can only be used for the purpose for which it was shared.”

Full article here.