[governance] Cispa cybersecurity bill passed by House of Representatives

Sat Apr 28 11:18:37 EDT 2012

To add to this mix...

Big Data could know us better than we know ourselves

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Data+could+know+better+than+know+ourselves
/6524781/story.html#ixzz1tLaFPFnK

M

 -----Original Message-----
From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org
[mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of parminder
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2012 8:07 AM
To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org
Subject: Re: [governance] Cispa cybersecurity bill passed by House of
Representatives

This is merely a formalisation of the existing, and far-reaching,
collaboration between the US gov and US digital/Internet business in the
'national security' space. In the same way as SOPA or no SOPA, whether
through the intervention of courts or just through executive decrees or
'requests', a global infrastructure of collaboration between US gov and US
Internet companies is already in place in the area of global IP enforcement
(read economic extraction), and keeps getting strenghtened. 

We see the clear and unmistakable building of a unipolar power system
anchored in the US, whereby the architecture of the Internet (technical as
well as socio-technical) is being shaped and put into service for
consolidation of political, military, economic, social and cultural power.
Does this have no implications on people's political, economic, social and
cultural rights, individually and collectively? 

What response does the civil society in IG space has to such huge
geo-political/ -economic/ -social/ -cutural tectonics, which is shaping the
power equations of a new world? I am sure it can do better than just
employing its ammunition against an India, Brazil or South Africa (IBSA)
when these countries raise alarm over the unipolar concentration of power in
the information society employing the Internet, and seek a democratic global
platform where these issues can be discussed and if needed contested. 

Unfortunately, another most significant information society change is the
emergence of a new global middle class, especially in developing countries,
that sees their social and political identity and constituency as an
amalgamated global rich or richness-aspirant class. This new class is ready
to cede political leadership to the US, in preference to the political
establishments in their home countries, even if they are largely or
considerably democratic (at least no less than the US is). And this emergent
class is so powerful in their 'home' countries that they can influence their
political establishments in the wrong directions, often blinding them to
what is manifestly happening in terms of consolidation of all kinds of power
with and in the US, and the role of Internet, and Internet (non ?)
governance in this process. 

Just my two cents of home made theory :).

parminder

On Saturday 28 April 2012 01:08 AM, Riaz K Tayob wrote: 

Cispa cybersecurity bill passed by House of Representatives

Republican-controlled House defies Obama over legislation to prevent
electronic attacks on US

*	

*
<http://www.facebook.com/dialog/feed?app_id=180444840287&link=http://www.gua
rdian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/27/cispa-cybersecurity-bill-passed-senate&di
splay=popup&redirect_uri=http://static-serve.appspot.com/static/facebook-sha
re/callback.html&show_error=false> 

*	

	Associated Press in Washington 
*	guardian.co.uk <http://www.guardian.co.uk/> , Friday 27 April 2012
10.12 BST 

*	Article history
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/27/cispa-cybersecurity-bill-p
assed-senate#history-link-box>  

House speaker John Boehner: 'The White House believes the government ought
to control the internet.' Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

The House of Representatives has ignored objections from Barack Obama's
administration and approved legislation aimed at helping to thwart
electronic attacks on critical US infrastructure and private companies.

On a bipartisan vote of 248-168, the Republican-controlled House backed the
Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (Cispa
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/cispa> ), which would encourage
companies and the federal government to share information collected on the
internet <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/internet>  to prevent
electronic attacks from cybercriminals, foreign governments and terrorists.

"This is the last bastion of things we need to do to protect this country,"
Republican Mike Rogers, chairman of the House intelligence committee, said
after more than five hours of debate.

More than 10 years after the September  11 terror attacks in 2001,
proponents cast the bill as an initial step to deal with an evolving threat
of the internet age. The information-sharing would be voluntary to avoid
imposing new regulations on businesses, an imperative for Republicans.

The legislation would allow the government to relay cyber threat information
to a company to prevent attacks from Russia or China. In the private sector,
corporations could alert the government and provide data that could stop an
attack intended to disrupt the country's water supply or take down the
banking system.

The Obama administration
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/obama-administration>  has threatened a
veto of the House bill, preferring a Senate measure that would give the
homeland security department the primary role in overseeing domestic
cybersecurity and the authority to set security standards. That Senate bill
remains stalled.

The Republican House speaker, John Boehner, said the administration's
approach was misguided.

"The White House believes the government ought to control the internet,
government ought to set standards and government ought to take care of
everything that's needed for cybersecurity," Boehner told reporters at his
weekly news conference. "They're in a camp all by themselves."

Faced with widespread privacy <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/privacy>
concerns, Rogers and Republican CA "Dutch" Ruppersberger , the intelligence
panel's top Democrat, pulled together an amendment that limits the
government's use of threat information to five specific purposes:
cybersecurity; investigation and prosecution of cybersecurity crimes;
protection of individuals from death or serious bodily harm; protection of
minors from child pornography; and the protection of national security.

The House passed the amendment by 410 votes to three.

The White House, along with a coalition of liberal and conservative groups
and lawmakers, strongly opposed the measure, complaining that Americans'
privacy could be violated. They argued that companies could share an
employee's personal information with the government, data that could end up
in the hands of officials from the National Security Agency or the defence
department. They also challenged the bill's liability waiver for private
companies that disclose information, complaining it was too broad.

"Once in government hands, this information can be used for undefined
'national security' purposes unrelated to cybersecurity," a coalition that
included the American Civil Liberties Union and former conservative
Republican representative Bob Barr, lawmakers said on Thursday.

Echoing those concerns were several Republicans and Democrats who warned of
potential government spying on its citizens with the help of employers.

"In an effort to foster information sharing, this bill would erode the
privacy protections of every single American using the internet. It would
create a 'wild west' of information sharing," said Bennie Thompson of
Mississippi, the leading Democrat on the House homeland security committee.

Republican representative Joe Barton said: "Until we protect the privacy
rights of our citizens, the solution is worse than the problem."

Countering criticism of Big Brother run amok, proponents argued that the
bill does not allow the government to monitor private networks, read private
emails or close a website. It urges companies that share data to remove
personal information.

"There is no government surveillance, none, not any in this bill," Rogers
said.

Among the amendments the House approved was one by Republican Justin Amash
that put certain personal information off limits: library, medical and gun
sale records, tax returns and education documents.

"I don't know why the government would want to snoop through library records
or tax returns to counter the cybersecurity threat," Amash said.

The House approved his amendment by 415-0.

Trumping any privacy concerns were the national security argument, always
powerful in an election year, and Republicans' political desire to complete
a bill that would then force the Democratic-led Senate to act.

The Obama administration backs a Senate bill sponsored by senators Joe
Lieberman, an Independent, and Republican Susan Collins, that gives homeland
security the authority to establish security standards.

However, that legislation faces opposition from senior Senate Republicans.

Arizona senator John McCain, the leading Republican on the Senate armed
services committee, said during a hearing last month that the homeland
security department was "probably the most inefficient bureaucracy that I
have ever encountered" and was ill-equipped to determine how best to secure
the nation's essential infrastructure. McCain has introduced a competing
bill.

. This article was amended on Friday 27 April to correct a mistake in the
headline. It originally said the bill had been passed by the Senate. This
has been corrected.

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