Groups Warn Of Privacy Concerns In Cybersecurity Bills

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/groups-warn-of-privacy-concerns-in-cybersecurity-bills-20120209

By Josh Smith
National Journal
February 9, 2012

Some efforts to share more information about cyberthreats could open a 
Pandora’s Box of privacy and civil rights concerns, civil liberties 
advocates said on Thursday.

As Congress looks to pass wide-ranging cybersecurity legislation this 
year, several bills included proposals for increasing the flow of 
information between government agencies and private companies.

If not implemented carefully, such measures could undermine privacy and 
other limits on government intrusion, the Center for Democracy and 
Technology’s Gregory Nojeim said at a Capitol Hill briefing for 
staffers.

Two issues are of particular concern, he said. The amount and type of 
information that is collected or shared needs to be narrowly limited; 
and the use of that information needs to be used only for cybersecurity 
efforts, not other, unrelated crimes. Nojeim praised a bill approved by 
a House Homeland Security subcommittee on Feb. 1 that creates a 
quasi-governmental organization to oversee information sharing and 
defines what information can be shared.

“There is widespread agreement that ISPs (internet service providers) 
and other operators of computer networks need clearer legal authority in 
order to be able to share with each other – and with the government -- 
signatures and other information about suspected attacks on their 
networks,” Nojeim wrote in a summary of the legislation. “However, since 
we are talking about privately owned and operated networks that carry 
personal communications, any sharing of information must be carefully 
controlled.”

[...]

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