House Passes CISPA Cybersecurity Bill — Again

by Marshall Honorof, TechNewsDaily Staff Writer

April 18 2013 05:07 PM ET

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. CREDIT: Diliff/Creative Commons View full size image

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) hasn't generated the same kind of outrage as last year's hot-button tech bills, SOPA and PIPA. Perhaps that's why it passed the United States House of Representatives so easily in the last Congress.
The House passed the bill again today (April 18), even though President Obama has once again made it clear that he will veto CISPA if it crosses his desk.
CISPA, also known as House Resolution 624, is a 27-page bill that outlines a plan to allow private businesses to share information with U.S. government organizations. Specifically, private organizations ("certified entities" or "a person with an appropriate security clearance to receive such cyber threat intelligence") could share information about Internet threats with American intelligence organizations (including the CIA, the NSA, military intelligence bodies and more).
The bill goes on to describe circumstances under which the director of national intelligence could requisition this information (more or less whenever he deems it necessary), and states that private organizations cannot share this information with unauthorized personnel or benefit unfairly from it.