Demand Progress Demands End to CISPA

Takes aim once again at cyberthreat info-sharing bill

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/21/2013 11:09:19 AM

Activist group Demand Progress is continuing its fight against a cybersecurity information sharing bill re-introduced last week and backed by cable ops and other ISPs.

The group said Thursday that over 90,000 members had expressed their displeasure with CISPA (the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act) introduced last week by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.).

Rogers introduced the same bill last year, after which Demand Progress members -- over 200,000 the group says -- called or emailed their legislators to complain. That complaint is that the bill preempts all online privacy laws by allowing for the sharing of cybersecurity threat information between industry and government without a warrant and with liability protections for industry.

The group even invoked its late founder, Aaron Swartz, who dubbed CISPA the "Patriot Act of the Internet."

CISPA passed the House 248-168 last April before running into a Senate controlled by Democrats favoring a bill with cybersecurity guidelines Republicans feared would morph into mandates.

The president two weeks ago mandated that voluntary guidelines be created, but the language was general enough that it drew little pushback from industry.