Beware the Son of CISPA
Another cybersecurity bill is being drafted by a bipartisan group in the Senate, which usually means it will get warped from its intentions into something far more expansive and sinister than what is needed to provide for the basics needing to be addressed.
CISPA was the last attempt at this, and it was eventually stopped when the pressure put on the Obama administration to veto the bill rose to a fever pitch.
The new bill sounds innocent enough, promising agencies and companies the ability to share information about attacks by hackers, and protecting company liabilities in such cases where the sharing does occur.
However, one must be very cautious. These are laudable goals, and companies should be able to share information about attacks against their network. But, CISPA would have blown privacy out of the water and despite claiming this bill will be better, the text of the bill will have to be analyzed and any amendments scrutinized before it should go forward.
Government agencies have a special organization to go through to report cyberattacks, but they are very restricted about what they can release to the general public, and cooperation with companies who may be under the same sort of attack is blocked by current legislation. This hamstrings both government and commercial interests when a denial of service or other attack occurs.