<div dir="ltr"><div><a href="http://www.districtdispatch.org/2014/07/president-asked-ala-partners-threaten-veto-privacy-hostile-cybersecurity-info-sharing-legislation-advancing-senate/">http://www.districtdispatch.org/2014/07/president-asked-ala-partners-threaten-veto-privacy-hostile-cybersecurity-info-sharing-legislation-advancing-senate/</a></div>
<div><br></div><div><h1>President Called by ALA and Partners to Again Threaten Veto of Privacy-Hostile “Cybersecurity” Info Sharing Legislation Advancing in Senate</h1><div><span>Posted on </span><a title="President Called by ALA and Partners to Again Threaten Veto of Privacy-Hostile “Cybersecurity” Info Sharing Legislation Advancing in Senate" href="http://www.districtdispatch.org/2014/07/president-asked-ala-partners-threaten-veto-privacy-hostile-cybersecurity-info-sharing-legislation-advancing-senate/" rel="bookmark"><font color="#0066cc">July 16, 2014</font></a><span> by </span><span><a title="View all posts by Adam Eisgrau" href="http://www.districtdispatch.org/author/adameisgrau/"><font color="#0066cc">Adam Eisgrau</font></a></span><span> </span> </div>
<div><p>As <a href="http://www.districtdispatch.org/2014/06/dangerous-zombie-cybersecurity-legislation-lives-senate/"><font color="#0066cc">recently reported</font></a>, Senate Intelligence Committee “markup” and approval of the privacy-hostile <a href="https://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/2588"><font color="#0066cc">Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2014 (CISA), S. 2588</font></a>, was delayed until after Congress’ brief July 4 recess . . . but not for long. Again meeting in secret, the Committee approved a somewhat<a href="https://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/2588/text"><font color="#0066cc"> modified (but insufficiently improved) version</font></a> of the bill on July 10.</p>
<p>Like three other similar bills introduced in the past four years, CISA is intended to head off and remediate hacking and other threats to communications and government electronic networks by authorizing private communications companies to share evidence of those “cybersecurity threats” with multiple arms of the federal government. To enable and encourage such reporting, however, it also effectively immunizes those companies against any legal action that might be brought against them by individual customers whose private information is disclosed without their permission.</p>
<p>So what’s wrong with preventing and blunting cyber-attacks? Nothing, <em>except</em> that CISA and its predecessors foster that laudable objective in the most overbroad way possible without building in important, entirely reasonable and wholly achievable safeguards for Americans’ privacy. As ALA’s coalition partners at the <a href="http://newamerica.net/sites/newamerica.net/files/profiles/attachments/UPDATED_OTI%20CISA%20Analysis_071114.pdf"><font color="#0066cc">Open Technology Institute</font></a> of the New America Foundation and <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/06/zombie-bill-comes-back-look-senates-cybersecurity-information-sharing-act-2014"><font color="#0066cc">Electronic Frontier Foundation</font></a> have pointed out in new analyses of the bill, as passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, that CISA:</p>
<ul><li>compels military involvement in previously civilian cybersecurity programs by requiring that cyberthreat information be instantly shared with the Department of Defense, NSA and Director of National Intelligence;</li>
<li>so broadly defines key terms like “cybersecurity purpose” and “cybersecurity threat” as to maximize threats to individual privacy rather than minimize them;</li><li>disturbingly authorizes the use of “countermeasures” against perceived threat sources;</li>
<li>makes no effort to effectively limit the amount of consumers’ personally identifiable information swept up in companies’ threat reports;</li><li>permits companies to monitor their customers accounts and activities to a much greater extent than current law permits; and</li>
<li>gives companies that share information virtually blanket immunity for any harm caused their customer as a result of unjustified or excessive sharing, or of “countermeasures” taken against them improperly or erroneously.</li>
</ul><p>With CISA now <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/technology/212032-privacy-fight-returns-for-cyber-bill"><font color="#0066cc">reportedly supported not just by the intelligence community but by powerful interests in the banking, securities and other industries</font></a>, ALA and its coalition partners are concerned that it could be among the few bills that the Senate actually takes up in the waning days of the current (pre-August break) legislative session and the current Congress, which is likely to adjourn not long after Labor Day until after the November 2014 mid-term elections. Accordingly, we and our partners yesterday delivered a<a href="http://www.ala.org/advocacy/sites/ala.org.advocacy/files/content/privacyconfidentiality/Veto-CISA-Coalition-Ltr.pdf%20"><font color="#0066cc"> letter to President Obama</font></a> calling on him to publicly indicate that he will veto CISA, or any similarly overbroad and dangerously imbalanced “cybersecurity” legislation that fails to much more fully protect all of our personal privacy. <a href="http://www.districtdispatch.org/2014/07/president-asked-ala-partners-threaten-veto-privacy-hostile-cybersecurity-info-sharing-legislation-advancing-senate/--%20as%20he%20has%20regarding%20earlier%20bills%20--"><font color="#0066cc">The President issued such a statement in 2012 </font></a>regarding similar legislation.</p>
<p>ALA and its partners will also continue, of course, to fight CISA in the Senate and it’s entirely likely that we’ll need your help. <a href="http://www.districtdispatch.org/textalerts/"><font color="#0066cc">Sign up now</font></a> to learn what you can do when the call comes.</p>
</div></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.districtdispatch.org/2014/07/president-asked-ala-partners-threaten-veto-privacy-hostile-cybersecurity-info-sharing-legislation-advancing-senate/">http://www.districtdispatch.org/2014/07/president-asked-ala-partners-threaten-veto-privacy-hostile-cybersecurity-info-sharing-legislation-advancing-senate/</a><br clear="all">
<br>-- <br></div><div><em><span style="font-family:"Comic Sans MS";font-size:10pt">Diedre Conkling</span></em><i><span style="font-family:"Comic Sans MS";font-size:10pt"><br><em><span style="font-family:"Comic Sans MS"">Lincoln County Library District</span></em><br>
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<span>“If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.”―Maya Angelou</span><span></span></h6><span style="font-family:"Comic Sans MS";font-size:10pt"></span></div>
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