CISPA: What You Need to Know

Though under a lot of the average consumer's radar, the CISPA is now making rounds again with a coalition of advocacy rights groups. The act, known as the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, forces companies to ignore existing privacy laws and share information with the Federal Government. This short article will bring you up to date on this bill.

The CISPA is another bill 'designed' to help prevent thefts and prevent them in cyberspace. But again, like all the previous bill before it, it is very poorly worded and has many loopholes that many groups and individuals are pointing out.

Some loopholes include:

• it contains few limits on how and when the government may monitor private information

• few safeguards are included as to how the data may be used

• Advocacy groups claim that such new powers are likely to be used to find and punish file sharers rather than foreign spies or hackers.

With such open ended areas, it is impossible for the bill to pass. It will be an injustice to us and themselves to do so.

The CISPA is an amendment to the National Security Act of 1947, a bill introduced by President Truman. The act realigned and reorganized the U.S. Armed Forces, foreign policy, and Intelligence Community after WWII. It also introduced to play our friend, the CIA.

Supporters

Opposition

• Russia Today: "Worse than SOPA"
• Electronic Frontier Foundation: Don't Let Congress Use "Cybersecurity" Fears to Erode Digital Rights.
• Constitution Project:"believes cybersecurity legislation currently pending before Congress poses major risks to civil liberties that must be addressed before any bill is enacted into law."
• American Civil Liberties union: "Beyond the potential for massive data collection authorization, the bill would provide no meaningful oversight of, or accountability for, the use of these new information-sharing authorities."[
• Reporters Without Borders: "In the name of the war on cyber crime, it would allow the government and private companies to deploy draconian measures to monitor, even censor, the Web."

Week Of Action

Dubbed the "Stop Cyber Spying Week," Starting on April 16, 2012, many civil liberties groups and advocates are raising the awareness of CISPA. CISPA opposition includes more than 650,000 online petitioners who have signed global civic organization Avaaz.org's "Save the Internet from the US" petition.

Stay safe out there, people. This world is getting more and more dangerous.