A few days ago, the US House Intelligence Committee has passed a document to remove legal barriers which have stopped the authorities and private companies from protecting their computer networks against foreign hackers.
According to the top Democrat on the committee, the modified law had a better chance of winning support in the Senate in 2013 after privacy concerns destroyed similar bill in 2012. He pointed out that only a year after the bill failed, politicians realized that cyber war was becoming more serious. He also told industry executives during a cyber conference hosted by the Space Foundation that according to the US authorities’ estimations, the local businesses had lost over $400 billion in intellectual property to cyber spies.
The co-founder of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus said the new legislation included measures to ensure private data wasn’t unwittingly exposed during any data-sharing between industry and government. For example, the document encourages the private sector to “anonymize” or “minimize” the data it voluntarily shared with the authorities. In addition, the bill authorizes and encourages the government to create procedures to protect privacy, and puts in place restrictions on the use, retention, and searching of any information that the private sector has voluntarily shared with the authorities. The legislation will also permit people to sue the federal government for any disclosures of such kind.
At the moment, the bill has the backing of large tech firms, including Intel, Oracle and IBM. However, the US Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and an association of smaller tech firms and grass-roots activists called “Fight for the Future” formed the opposition and have already launched a digital campaign against it. A few days ago, the Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has published a video and Internet petition calling for the online giants, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, to oppose the legislation.
According to the top Democrat on the committee, the modified law had a better chance of winning support in the Senate in 2013 after privacy concerns destroyed similar bill in 2012. He pointed out that only a year after the bill failed, politicians realized that cyber war was becoming more serious. He also told industry executives during a cyber conference hosted by the Space Foundation that according to the US authorities’ estimations, the local businesses had lost over $400 billion in intellectual property to cyber spies.
The co-founder of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus said the new legislation included measures to ensure private data wasn’t unwittingly exposed during any data-sharing between industry and government. For example, the document encourages the private sector to “anonymize” or “minimize” the data it voluntarily shared with the authorities. In addition, the bill authorizes and encourages the government to create procedures to protect privacy, and puts in place restrictions on the use, retention, and searching of any information that the private sector has voluntarily shared with the authorities. The legislation will also permit people to sue the federal government for any disclosures of such kind.
At the moment, the bill has the backing of large tech firms, including Intel, Oracle and IBM. However, the US Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and an association of smaller tech firms and grass-roots activists called “Fight for the Future” formed the opposition and have already launched a digital campaign against it. A few days ago, the Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has published a video and Internet petition calling for the online giants, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, to oppose the legislation.
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