Anonymous and Libertarians Protest CISPA; Tech Giants Don't Give a Damn

About 400 websites are taking part in an online blackout today to protest the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). The web-based demonstration, organized by the hacktivist organization, Anonymous, is not likely to interfere with the average web user's day, unless that user frequently posts funny videos on Reddit. CISPA, a controversial bill that aims to boost cybersecurity by removing legal barriers that prevent tech companies and the government from sharing sensitive information about web users, sailed through the House last week, despite strong opposition from privacy groups and President Barack Obama, who is threatening to veto the current version of the bill. Early last year,  the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), two online copyright enforcement bills, spurred widespread blackouts involving more than 7,000 websites and tech giants, including Wikipedia and Google, yet the biggest websites willing to take a public stand against CISPA merely include various subsections of Reddit and a Facebook page for the Libertarian party.

CISPA Amendment Banning Employers From Asking For Facebook Passwords Blocked

Bad news, Facebook users. U.S. employers may soon be able to require employees to fork over their social media passwords.

A last-minute amendment to the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act -- known as CISPA -- banning such a practice was blocked by members of the U.S. House of Representatives, despite the passage of the broad cybersecurity bill overall.

The provision, proposed by Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Co.), was voted down 224-189, with Republicans constituting the majority.

CISPA Vote: House Passes Cybersecurity Bill To Let Companies Break Privacy Contracts

WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives passed a broad cybersecurity bill Thursday that allows corporations to share customers' personal data with other firms and the U.S. government, even in cases in which a company has a signed contract explicitly vowing not to do so.

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, known as CISPA, passed by a margin of 288 to 127, despite receiving a late veto threat from the Obama administration, which warned that the bill does not sufficiently protect civil liberties. The veto threat was particularly noteworthy, given President Barack Obama's Department of Justice has been urging Congress to expand its data-gathering and cybercrime powers for years. Congress shelved a similar bill last year after the White House expressed its formal opposition.

Mike Rogers: CISPA Cybersecurity Bill Opponents Are Teens In Their Basements

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said Tuesday that most opponents to his controversial cybersecurity bill are teenagers in their basements as the Obama administration threatened to veto the measure for its potential to violate civil liberties.

The bipartisan Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, known as CISPA, aims to defend U.S. industries and corporate networks from cyber attacks by foreign governments, terrorist groups and other criminals. CISPA backers in the House of Representatives laid out their rationale during a hearing Tuesday afternoon when Rogers, the chief sponsor, invoked his 14-year-old nephew to describe the bill's opponents.

Senate Advances Expanded, "Orwellian" Gov’t Surveillance With FISA Amendments, CISPA

The Senate is closer to renewing controversial measures that critics say would allow the emails and phone calls of U.S. citizens to be monitored without a warrant. The Select Committee on Intelligence has voted to extend controversial amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that were set to expire at the end of this year. “What we’re asking is that they slow down this process and start first with the question: What type of information are they picking up? How many Americans are being affected? What is the government doing with it?,” says Michelle Richardson of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has sued over the U.S. government’s surveillance practices, saying agencies would be able to tap their communications with clients and sources overseas.

We’re also joined by William Binney, who served in the National Security Agency for nearly 40 years, including a stint as technical director of its World Geopolitical and Military Analysis Reporting Group. Since retiring from the NSA in 2001, Binney has warned that the NSA’s data-mining program has become so vast that it could “create an Orwellian state.” "This is a continuation of the mindless legislation that our Congress has been putting out just to justify what they’ve been doing for a decade or more,” Binney says. “Instead of living up to their oath of office [and] defend the Constitution, they’ve decided to violate the civil liberties and the rights of all U.S. citizens." The Senate is also set to vote soon on the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act — a bill opposed by many civil liberties and privacy groups.

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Paranoia About CISPA Is Justified

On Thursday evening, the House of Representatives passed legislation called the Cyber Intelligence Information Sharing Protection Act, or CISPA. Sponsors of the bill say its purpose is to permit the government and private companies to share information with one another in order to thwart cyberthreats that could imperil national security. For example, say that spies in China were trying to hack into the personal email accounts of various government officials, the server of a hospital, or the database of a "too big to fail" bank. If CISPA is signed into law, these entities and the federal government would be able to share customer data "to identify and obtain cyber threat information," even if that data is currently unlawful to reveal (thanks to laws passed to ensure that companies don't share sensitive consumer information with the government).

Civil-liberties groups have various objections to the bill.

The ACLU conjures up a problematic scenario that could happen if it passes. "Imagine you are emailing your doctor from your Gmail account about a medical condition. Your doctor pulls up your medical records from his cloud storage server and sends them your way. Somewhere in that communication, a virus crops up," staffer Zachary Katznelson writes. "Under CISPA, Google could send your emails, including the electronic copy of your medical records, to the NSA, so they can gather information on the virus. But, Google would be under no obligation whatsoever to scrub out your private details -- which have nothing to do with the virus. And now your medical records are in government hands indefinitely -- and the government can use them."

CISPA Passes House: Cybersecurity Bill Approved Despite White House Veto Threat

The House of Representatives passed cybersecurity legislation Thursday aimed at protecting American companies from hackers who steal intellectual property.

The bill passed 248 to 168, largely along party lines, despite the Obama administration's threats to veto the bill and its claims that the bill falls short in protecting civil liberties

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, sponsored by Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), would give businesses and the federal government legal protection to share information about cyber-threats with each other. The government does not currently share that data because the information is classified and companies fear violating anti-trust law. The bill would remove legal barriers so they can do so.

On the House floor before the vote, Rogers said the bill was about preventing other nations from stealing intellectual property from U.S. companies.

“You know, without our ideas, without our innovation that countries like China are stealing every single day, we will cease to be a great nation," Rogers said. "They are slowly and silently and quickly stealing the value and prosperity of America."

CISPA Critics Warn Cybersecurity Bill Will Increase Domestic Surveillance and Violate Privacy Rights

As it heads toward a House vote, critics say the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) would allow private internet companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft to hand over troves of confidential customer records and communications to the National Security Agency, FBI and Department of Homeland Security, effectively legalizing a secret domestic surveillance program already run by the NSA. Backers say the measure is needed to help private firms crackdown on foreign entities — including the Chinese and Russian governments — committing online economic espionage. The bill has faced widespread opposition from online privacy advocates and even the Obama administration, which has threatened a veto. "CISPA … will create an exception to all existing privacy laws so that companies can share very sensitive and personal information directly with the government, including military agencies like the National Security Agency," says Michelle Richardson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "Once the government has it, they can repurpose it and use it for a number of things, including an undefined national security use."

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