The Senate is giving more power to the NSA, in secret.

[kpete]

The Senate is giving more power to the NSA, in secret. Everyone should fight it
Politicians are still trying to hand over your data behind closed doors, under the guise of 'cybersecurity' reform. Have we learned nothing?

One of the most underrated benefits of Edward Snowden's leaks was how they forced the US Congress to shelve the dangerous, privacy-destroying legislation– then known as Cispa – that so many politicians had been so eager to pass under the guise of "cybersecurity". Now a version of the bill is back, and apparently its authors want to keep you in the dark about it for as long as possible.

Now it's called the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (Cisa), and it is a nightmare for civil liberties. Indeed, it's unclear how this kind of law would even improve cybersecurity. The bill was marked up and modified by the Senate intelligence committee in complete secrecy this week, and only afterward was the public allowed to see many of the provisions passed under its name.

Cisa is what Senator Dianne Feinstein, the bill's chief backer and the chair of the committee, calls an "information-sharing" law that's supposed to help the government and tech and telecom companies better hand information back and forth to the government about “cyberthreat” data, such as malware. But in reality, it is written so broadly it would allow companies to hand over huge swaths of your data – including emails and other communications records – to the government with no legal process whatsoever. It would hand intelligence agencies another legal authority to potentially secretly re-interpret and exploit in private to carry out even more surveillance on the American public and citizens around the world.

Under the new provisions, your data can get handed over by the tech companies and others to the Department of Homeland Security (not exactly a civil liberties haven itself), but then it can be passed along to the nation's intelligence agencies … including the NSA. And even if you find out a company violated your privacy by handing over personal information it shouldn’t have, it would have immunity from lawsuits – as long as it acted in "good faith". It could amount to what many are calling a “backdoor wiretap”, where your personal information could end up being used for all sorts of purposes that have nothing to do with cybersecurity.



http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/12/senate-nsa-secret-cybersecurity-information-sharing-act

[marmar]

1. Anyone who thinks this is about "fighting terror" is delusional.

nt

[Rod Beauvex]

7. Oh, it's about fighting terrorists alright.

The kind of homegrown terrorists that might get upset about the government/corporations/rich people abusing them.

[Uncle Joe]

14. They know global warming is for real and they're laying the foundation for the chaotic aftermath.

They believe, the only way to keep the lid on the pot when it all hits the fan, is to devolve into a full blown police state, a built up wall between us and Mexico, the promotion of corporate supremacy over the people, for profit prisons, militarized police, the "War on Terror;" which by definition can have no end, the NSA's total awareness of everything under the sun and subsequent flushing down the toilet of the Fourth Amendment; all make for laying the yellow brick road to perdition.

[questionseverything]

17. sadly

you maybe correct

[orpupilofnature57]

2. This is why they Hate and fear Eddie, he pulled the curtain on intent .

[antiquie]

3. "... without fear of frivolous lawsuits and without unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles."

The text of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, which passed 12-3, has not been released to the public yet. Committee chairwoman and the bill's co-author Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) trumpeted its passage in a statement.

"Cyber-attacks present the greatest threat to our national and economic security today, and the magnitude of the threat is growing," she said. "Every week we hear about the theft of personal information from retailers and trade secrets from innovative businesses, as well as ongoing efforts by foreign nations to hack government networks."

Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), the bill's co-author and committee vice-chairman, said that the bill is an important piece of anti-terrorism legislation. Chambliss said, "The legislation passed out of committee today is a strong, bipartisan bill that encourages the private sector and the government to share information voluntarily about these threats, without fear of frivolous lawsuits and without unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles."

Feinstein said that the bill would require the director of national intelligence to share more classified and unclassified threat information with businesses than it currently does. It states that the sharing of "cyber threat information" is voluntary and that "appropriate measures" must be taken to prevent the sharing of personal identifying data, including oversight by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.

Without the actual language of the bill, it's hard to determine which specific problems the bill is attempting to remedy. Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Mark Jaycox told CNET that Executive Order 13636 authorizes "a tremendous amount of sharing" between the government and businesses and between companies through their publication of threats and disclosure lists.

http://www.cnet.com/news/senate-panel-approves-data-sharing-cybersecurity-bill/

This Californian believes it is way past time for Senator Feinstein to retire.

[Romulox]

4. If we can only win back the Senate in 2014, we can put a stop to this!

...oh...

[orpupilofnature57]

5. Good one !!!!

[hootinholler]

6. Kick for something that should be at the top of the greatest page. n/t

[nashville_brook]

12. +1

[questionseverything]

8. i am sure some random poster will be along shortly

to explain how this is a great idea that will stop every bad thing possible

and to explain how living like an animal in a cage, being watched 24/7 is actually a grand existence!!!!

[Aerows]

15. Yep, some "random" poster

LOL.

[questionseverything]

16. better to laugh than cry, eh?

<wink>

[littlemissmartypants]

9. Kicking. Thank you. nt

[littlemissmartypants]

10. Thanks for your post kpete. eom

[rickyhall]

11. I don't trust Feinstein anymore

[Uncle Joe]

13. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.