The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), introduced last year by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), has received over 100 cosponsors and appears to be headed for the House floor for a vote.
According to the sponsors of the bill, the legislation would help US businesses protect themselves and their corporate customers from hackers looking to steal intellectual property. It would enable participating businesses to share cyber threat information with others in the private sector and enable the private sector to share information with the government on a voluntary basis. The legislation also provides liability protection for companies that choose to protect their own networks or share threat information.
Supporters, including internet service providers like AT&T and Verizon and social networking sites like Facebook, argue that the bill would help the private sector defend itself from advanced cyber threats, without imposing any new federal regulations or unfunded private sector mandates.
However, critics argue that it would greatly expand the government’s ability to monitor and censor the internet. “In the name of the war on cyber crime, it would allow the government and private companies to deploy draconian measures to monitor, even censor, the Web. It might even be used to close down sites that publish classified files or information”, warned Reporters without Borders.
The Center for Democracy and Technology said that the bill “has a very broad, almost unlimited definition of the information that can be shared with government agencies notwithstanding privacy and other laws” and “is likely to lead to expansion of the government’s role in the monitoring of private communications as a result of this sharing.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation judged that the bill "would give companies and the government new powers to monitor and censor communications for copyright infringement. It could also be a powerful weapon to use against whistleblower websites like WikiLeaks."