The United States House of Representatives on Thursday voted to approve the highly controversial cyber security bill CISPA, which stands for the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act.
The Bill called the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) was presented under the guise National Security, but in reality opens up a loop hole for companies that collect personal information about their users and in some cases want to trade of even sell these to other companies for money or other services.
This was the second time that the US House of Representatives passed the CISPA. Senators had earlier rejected the first draft of this bill on the grounds that it wasn't providing enough for protecting the privacy. Some lawmakers and privacy activists worry that the legislation would allow the government to monitor citizens' private information and companies to misuse it.
The first parts of CISPA are relevant and necessary. If we're "hacked," CISPA allows the government to alert companies. The company can then respond, or inform the government of their actions in order to facilitate cooperation.
Few companies have spoken out against CISPA, which would allow the government to share classified cyber threat information with companies in order to help them protect their network. Privacy advocates have already begun to mobilize against CISPA. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) argues that the bill is poorly drafted and poses a threat to civil liberties, and has asked its supporters to call their Representatives.
Anonymous hacktivist group is calling upon website owners to take down their normal pages and replace them with a page that explains the reasons for the change and protest, and they're also asking that they help spread the word to their fellow site owners and encourage them to do the same.
