Snowden Leaks Have Likely Killed CISPA Dead
from the about-time dept
The cybersecurity legislation pushed by Reps. Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger, CISPA, was already probably dead in the water because the Senate had shown no interest in supporting their privacy-destroying legislation for the past two years -- preferring instead to introduce bills that actually took privacy seriously. However, as we'd explained at the time, CISPA was always really about giving more power to the NSA as part of a turf war between the Defense Department (which the NSA is a part of) and Homeland Security. In fact, the biggest concerns that activists were raising about CISPA was the fact that it would give companies broad immunity from liability if they handed any information over to the NSA. Supporters of the bill kept bending over backwards insisting that this was entirely "voluntary" and that, of course, the NSA wouldn't do anything bad with the data -- rather it was all to "protect" us from evil hackers from China.Of course, given the revelations over the last few months concerning the NSA's activities, it appears that they've driven the final nail in CISPA's coffin, as a growing number of people in Congress realize that handing even more power to the NSA is not such a good idea.
"The plan was always a little vague, at least as [NSA boss] Keith [Alexander] described it, but today it may be Snowden's biggest single victim," one senior intelligence official said recently, referring to Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor who released documents revealing details of many of the agency's surveillance programs.Exactly. So kudos to Snowden for stopping another really bad bill that was always really about giving the NSA that much more power to spy on people.
"Whatever trust was there is now gone," the official added. "I mean, who would believe the N.S.A. when it insists it is blocking Chinese attacks but not using the same technology to read your e-mail?"
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Filed Under: cispa, congress, cybersecurity, dhs, dutch ruppersberger, ed snowden, mike rogers, nsa, privacy
Reader Comments
The First Word
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CISPA will be back, in some form.
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GOOD! That'll prevent legalizing what Google is doing!
Where Mike fights CISPA without mentioning major data sources Google and Facebook.
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Re: GOOD! That'll prevent legalizing what Google is doing!
If you're going to slander Mike at least don't shoot down your own claims
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Re: Re: GOOD! That'll prevent legalizing what Google is doing!
But if Mike opposes a bill that legalizes Google's activity that kind of proves that Mike is not a Google shill.
If you're going to slander Mike at least don't shoot down your own claims
No, what I state is observable FACT that Mike opposes it without mentioning that it would HELP Google. CISPA is a PRO-SPYING bill that'll move Google and Facebook from operating in legal gray area to fully legal. This doesn't in any way prove that Mike isn't a Google shill, because he needs to publicly oppose it to maintain his credibility, but the bill -- note that I'm back on Sept 24 -- is now back on the table AS IF been on rails all along, so at the VERY least, Mike was WRONG here about it being dead! I bet it was just tabled while the NSA flap dies down.
So long as Mike keeps opposing CISPA without mentioning Google and Facebook, how can you NOT suspect he's a Google shill? Over a period of months LEAVING OUT KEY POINTS indicates concealed motives.
SO, guess you can choose to keep faith in Mike, who's been proved wrong here, and who definitely never mentions Google or Facebook as benefitting from this bill, while reviling ME who's merely proved right and warns of mega-corporations...
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"Snowden's biggest single victim"?
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Re: "Snowden's biggest single victim"?
The president is safe, two terms in already, but the party might be concerned. Oh wait, this started on the OTHER parties onus.
It appears the lackeys are safe, who in congress might start the process, and the DOJ is not just on-board.
There is a chance if the backlash is big enough for a few contractors that abet these operations.
The public companies might feel something, who would want to buy from Microsoft for instance, universities, other private companies, other public companies, governments?
In other cases, it will depend upon the marketplace. Is there sufficient competition in 'Privacy' related...well everything? The FTC might think so, oh and the FCC as well.
Others?
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Re: "Snowden's biggest single victim"?
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Re: Re: "Snowden's biggest single victim"?
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I'm confused
Aren't they doing that already? Or did they stop? See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A
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Re: I'm confused
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Re: Re: I'm confused
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CISPA and the NSA
Not just the NSA, but also the FBI, IRS, and any other federal agency. Basically, CISPA would have done for purely domestic surveillance what FISA claims to do solely for surveillance of foreign persons.
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Seems Like The More Information They Collect, The More Terrorist Incidents They Fail To Prevent
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Re: Seems Like The More Information They Collect, The More Terrorist Incidents They Fail To Prevent
To paraphrase Star Wars on the situation... The more you tighten your grip on information, the more Terrorists will slip through your fingers
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even if cispa, sopa and the likes are goners much damage was still done. anyone notice how search engines completely suck now? if we get complex with our searches even just a little bit it will usually give "no search results found" or maybe 1 page if your lucky
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Techdirt's kids who don't censor have censored me again!
This proves censorship because there's NOTHING here that any reasonable person would object to reading. My LEAST controversial comments seem most likely to be censored, as if they don't want me to get any positive. They just want to shut me up. You can tell from comments here and there that's their intention. They don't consider readers capable of judging for themselves, but do hold themselves to be high and mighty arbiters of what's safe for the soft-headed to read. And of course when I complain about it, they mock that. CLASSIC CENSORSHIP. They just don't have all the power that they want.
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out_of_the_blue, Aug 13th, 2013 @ 2:01pm
GOOD! That'll prevent legalizing what Google is doing!
THAT was a main purpose of it.
Where Mike fights CISPA without mentioning major data sources Google and Facebook.
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