Senate Cybersecurity Information Sharing Bill Proposed
Senators Dianne Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss have proposed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2014. The Senate bill is similar to the House Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which was opposed by civil liberties organizations and would have been vetoed by the White House if enacted. Like CISPA, the Senate bill allows companies to monitor private communications on their networks and to disclose user activity to the government. The bill would also exempt companies from liability for monitoring communications or disclosing user information. However, the Senate bill makes some attempt to limit the collection of personally identifiable information. EPIC recently won a five-year court battle with the NSA and obtained National Security Presidential Directive 54. The directive was issued by President Bush in 2008 and is the foundational legal document for U.S. cybersecurity policies. The Presidential Directive reveals the government’s long-standing interest in enlisting private sector companies to monitor user activity. For more information, see EPIC: Cybersecurity.