The White House is expressing thinly-veiled concerns about a new cybersecurity bill moving through Congress.
Known as CISPA, short for the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, the bill been targeted by Web freedom advocates due to its broad language that would allow tech companies to share personally identifiable information about users with the government and vice-versa.
On Tuesday night, following a House breifing by intelligence agency directors, the National Security Council gave a statement to the Hill indicating the White House’s concerns with legislation like CISPA. As National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden told the Hill:
“The nation’s critical infrastructure cyber vulnerabilities will not be addressed by information sharing alone,” Hayden said.
“Also, while information sharing legislation is an essential component of comprehensive legislation to address critical infrastructure risks, information sharing provisions must include robust safeguards to preserve the privacy and civil liberties of our citizens. Legislation without new authorities to address our nation’s critical infrastructure vulnerabilities, or legislation that would sacrifice the privacy of our citizens in the name of security, will not meet our nation’s urgent needs,” she said, without explicitly mentioning CISPA.
The House of Representatives is scheduled to debate and vote on CISPA the week of April 23rd.
(H/T: CNET)
