“The House of Representatives passed legislation on Thursday designed to help companies and the government share information on cyber threats, though concerns linger about the amount of protection the bill offers for private information,” Alina Selyukh reports for Reuters. “This is the second go-around for the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act after it passed the House last year but stalled in the Senate after President Barack Obama threatened to veto it over privacy concerns.”
“The bill, H.R. 624, drew support from House Democrats, passing on a bipartisan vote of 288-127, although the White House repeated its veto threat on Tuesday if further civil liberties protections are not added,” Selyukh reports. “The bill’s supporters say a new law is needed to let the government share threat information with entities that don’t have security clearances. ‘If you want to take a shot across China’s bow, this is the answer,’ the House bill’s Republican co-author and Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers of Michigan said on the floor on Thursday. While groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union remain displeased, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer called the new version of the bill ‘a significant improvement from what was passed last year.'”
Selyukh reports, “Still, the future of cybersecurity legislation in the Senate remains unclear, given Obama’s veto threat and lack of action so far from Senate Democrats that control the majority there. The White House did not immediately comment on the bill’s passage. It was quickly welcomed, however, by many industry groups that had supported it. Backers had included the wireless group CTIA, the business lobby U.S. Chamber of Commerce and TechNet, which represents large technology companies such as Google Inc, Apple Inc, Yahoo! Inc and Cisco Systems Inc.”
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