The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is a bill currently being considered by multiple nations that gives both the government and private businesses the right to share personal information under certain circumstances. The idea is that cyberthreats to both nations and businesses can be identified and acted on with greater speed and success. It doesn’t sound too bad in theory, but many folk around the web are getting stirred up about the ambiguity of the bill’s wording.
While those pushing CISPA claim that it will only be used to address ‘cyberthreats’, these cyberthreats are identified as being anything making ‘efforts to degrade, disrupt or destroy’ vital networks, as well as anything that makes a ‘threat or misappropriation’ of information owned by the government or private businesses. Without being political experts ourselves we can immediately detect problems with terms like “degrade” or “threat” or “misappropriation”, as the definitions of these terms can vary significantly depending on who’s using them and in what context.
If you’re thinking that a similar bill, SOPA, was just shouted down in the US then you’re partially correct. However, CISPA is a far more detailed and carefully thought through measure than CISPA. As such it requires a lot more research and depth of understanding in order to comprehend its potential implications, both in the long and short term.
Unfortunately CISPA is moving quite quickly, already having passed the US House of Representatives. One reason CISPA has so far been successful is that rather than punishing companies unnecessarily like SOPA proposed, CISPA actually rewards companies for sharing your information. This information is considered proprietary. That means that you have no right to know what kind of information is being gathered on you, or in what way said information is being gathered or used.
It all sounds very scary at first, but it’s important to note that support for CISPA far outweighs anything that we saw for SOPA. Companies like Facebook, IBM, Verizon, AT&T, Intel and more have already given their official backing to the bill. Reddit, a website that was perhaps the most vehemently opposed to SOPA, is still yet to make up its mind, bringing in experts from around the US to help understand the bill better before taking a firm stance. Google is also still sitting on the fence regarding CISPA.
Obviously the bill has a few opponents. Mozilla recently joined up to fight the measure, stating that “CISPA has a broad and alarming reach that goes far beyond Internet security.”
Perhaps the most notable of CISPA adversaries is President Barrack Obama. The Obama administration has taken a firm stance against the current incarnation of CISPA, taking issue specifically with the “inappropriate” protection of legal liability for companies. The presidential administration has gone as far as to threaten to veto the bill, stating “The American people expect their Government to enhance security without undermining their privacy and civil liberties.”
Our Position
With a bill this detailed it’s difficult to come up with a completely firm stance as the issues addressed aren’t black-and-white. For our part we do acknowledge the need to a more clear-cut way of responding to ‘cyberthreats’ as we move forward in our technological age. However, what is required is a more clear definition of just exactly what a ‘cyberthreat’ involves, as well as some far more restrictive wording to be employed in the bill itself.
As it stands it sounds like privately owned companies will have too much free reign over how they acquire and use personal information. We’re also not the biggest fans of giving any government totally free reign over every tiny aspect of our private lives.
To reiterate: we agree that more efficient systems need to be implemented to fight cyberthreats in our increasingly plugged-in times, but those systems need to be restricted to focusing on actual threats and not leave the door open for abuse in the future by either the government or private businesses through ambiguous phrasing.
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