Who Needs CISPA? White House Unveils Voluntary Data Sharing Plan To Fight Botnets

from the plus,-no-privacy-violations! dept

Thu, May 31st 2012 9:34am — Mike Masnick

As the fight over CISPA continues (apparently with some concerns that the existing bill is effectively dead in the water), the White House announced a new voluntary program for companies to share info about botnets in order to stop them. This raises the question, yet again, why we need laws like CISPA in the first place. Companies and the government can already share threat information without violating anyone's privacy. All CISPA and similar bills are really doing is making it easier to violate privacy rules when sharing that kind of information.

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Filed Under: botnet, cispa, data sharing, white house

16 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 31 May 2012 @ 9:44am

This is how I imagine the conversation at the White House after the robot takeover.
"Sorry Mr President, but it appears we can't stop Skynet by using legislature."

"But, but...I brought my favorite pen!"
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:Lobo Santo (profile), 31 May 2012 @ 9:52am

Re: This is how I imagine the conversation at the White House after the robot takeover.
"But, I brought my favorite 16 pens! All of which will be given away or auctioned after signing the bill into law..."
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Killer_Tofu (profile), 31 May 2012 @ 9:53am

Because they're all tools
This raises the question, yet again, why we need laws like CISPA in the first place.

Because, when the only tool you have is a hammer ...
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Anonymous Coward, 31 May 2012 @ 10:27am

the whole object of all bills like CISPA is to obtain information on and/or spy on private citizens. all established privacy rules and freedom of speech rules etc that were fought for are being destroyed by paranoid politicians, not because of what might happen but because of what might perhaps happen, perhaps at sometime, perhaps somewhere. although there are some people out there that are not completely honest, making everyone out to be a criminal is pretty frightening!
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Ninja (profile), 31 May 2012 @ 10:40am

Grammar nazi
All CISPA and similar bills are really doing is making it easier to violates privacy rules

Mike, I think you writes it wrong =/
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Ninja (profile), 31 May 2012 @ 10:42am

Re:
Paranoid politicians? Some, maybe. Not all. IT's all about control, my friend.
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rabbit wise (profile), 31 May 2012 @ 10:44am

one word - infragard.

yet more proof about what this legislation is absolutely not about.
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weneedhelp (profile), 31 May 2012 @ 10:58am

Re: Re: This is how I imagine the conversation at the White House after the robot takeover.
Or stolen by a President from another country:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMoaJCd6qMk

You got such nice pens.
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DannyB (profile), 31 May 2012 @ 11:07am

Who Needs CISPA?
Tyrants and censors do. That's who.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 May 2012 @ 11:08am

A little late to the party
We've been standing on the rooftops screaming about botnets for a decade, and how they're far larger than (many) people are comfortable admitting. So NOW the White House decides to maybe think about the possibility of doing something about them?
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weneedhelp (profile), 31 May 2012 @ 11:10am

Re: Grammar nazi
Mikes engrish is just fine.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 May 2012 @ 11:12am

DUH!, because it's VOLUNTARY as opposed to REQUIRED.
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Leigh Beadon (profile), 31 May 2012 @ 12:05pm

Re: Grammar nazi
fixed, thanks!
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Zane, 31 May 2012 @ 8:44pm

Botnets, politicians and botnet-politians
The internet needs guidance if its going to move forward. These bills are to immature to create a good foundation... we are in an information age boom so it will take some time. The worst thing that we can do is let botnet-politians sell out the internet. Im sure there are enough smart people in this country to let sopa, cispa, .... etc... do any damage. If not then the repurcusion will hopefully wake everyone up. Either way i think that things will be fine. Just educate yourself and be proactive or else the botnet-politians will cause problems... long live the internet and the power that it will bring to our future world. Later everyone!
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Dave, 1 Jun 2012 @ 9:59am

Ohh dear -- but who is protecting the privacy of the botnets?
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jun 2012 @ 1:51pm

One of my Senators non reply reply, and it seems that the staff can't even take the time to use my name in the reply.

Of course the other senator from NY hasn't even sent a reply which is typical of him.

June 13, 2012

Dear Friend,

Thank you for writing to me about H.R.3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). I understand and share some of your concerns.

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act would allow information sharing between cyber security entities and the federal government to better protect our nation from a cyber-attack; however, there are concerns that CISPA would infringe on privacy protections for average citizens, and would allow private entities and the federal government to gain access to personal information. We need to balance protecting against an attack with preserving the civil liberties of all Americans.

All New Yorkers should be able to agree on the shared goals of protecting against a cyber-attack without any unintended consequences of infringing on civil liberties. CISPA is currently being reviewed by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. I will continue to monitor this and other legislation to ensure our national security needs are being met while not infringing on the rights of average Americans.

Thank you again for writing to express your concerns, and I hope that you keep in touch with my office regarding future legislation and concerns you may have. For more information on this and other important issues, please visit my website at http://gillibrand.senate.gov and sign up for my e-newsletter.

Sincerely,

Kirsten E. Gillibrand
United States Senator
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