Staff Writer, DL Mullan
Government/ News
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It's back. The CISA was passed by the Senate this week. If you want to read what the bill contains, here is the document from the Congressional Website.
This bill is being directed to help corporations and industries deal with cyberattacks, but isn't that the corporations problem, not a public policy one? Why aren't billion dollar profiting corporations able to fend off hackers without public monies or laws?
Is this bill another form of corporate welfare?
According to CNN's' article explaining the bill:
The idea behind CISA is to help U.S. companies react more quickly to cyberattacks on their computer systems. If a company gets hit with a specific type of hack, the federal government would receive an alert and immediately distribute warnings to other companies.
Every cyberattack is like a flu virus, and CISA is intended to be a lightning-fast distribution system for the flu vaccine. Opt in, and you get a government shot in minutes, not months.
Currently, industries maintain specialized, military-like "information sharing and analysis centers" to track cyberattacks and collectively develop defenses. Banking has its ISAC. The energy sector has its own too. But they don't team up.
And how is that a problem that Congress needs to spend taxpayer money to make someone's secretary call someone else's secretary to take a meeting on the subject?
The article goes on to explain more about this CISA law:
CISA would create a single system that sends "cyber threat indicators" -- such as samples of malicious computer code -- to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS would then feed this data to the FBI, NSA and other government agencies. DHS would also share warnings to every participating American company.
Computer scientists and military experts agree that automatic, immediate sharing helps the nation raise its defenses.
I have seen this movie. Haven't you? Skynet, anyone?
One centralized computer to do everything is a recipe for disaster.
What we also should be questioning is:
A significant element of the bill is that CISA would eliminate liability for companies, making them immune to lawsuits for sharing too much. Banking, energy, health care, insurance -- almost every industry but tech supported the bill.
Several efforts to include additional privacy measures were shot down in the Senate.
So this bill is really about government overreach and making their accomplices immune from legal action all the while giving birth to an integrated technological system of corporate welfare and intrusion.
Call your Congressional representatives today. This bill has no place in American policy or law. Americans do not have to give the government anything without a warrant and probable cause.
The government going through corporations to steal private and sensitive information from Americans is not why or how our government was formed. Our government answers to the People. The People do NOT answer to the government.
Let's make that clear because it appears our government officials do not comprehend the concept.
Source:
Congress,
CNN,
