A Letter I received from Senator DI-Fi on CISPA
Thank you for your letter concerning the "Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act" (H.R. 3523). I appreciate your taking the time to write and welcome the opportunity to respond.
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act was introduced in the House of Representatives on February 13, 2013 by Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI). The bill would, among other things, establish procedures to allow the Intelligence Community to share cyber threat intelligence with the private sector.
I agree with the authors of the House bill that our nation faces a serious and growing threat from cyber attacks and espionage—threats to both our national security and our economy. Effective cybersecurity requires that information on cyber threats and defenses in our government's hands be passed to the private sector, and that information from industry be shared with the government.
At the same time, it is critical that our efforts to improve cyber security include robust privacy protections. In particular, we must ensure that our constitutional rights and liberties are protected, and place proper limits on the government's use of cyber security information that it obtains from the private sector.
Last Congress I authored the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2012 (S. 2102). While that legislation accomplished many of the same goals as the House legislation, it included robust privacy protections and safeguards against the private sector abusing information sharing authorities. As Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I will shortly be introducing a bill on information sharing which allows sharing of cyber intrusion data with the government with full immunity. In this way we hope to encourage a major effort between the public and private sector to share data so that cyber intrusion can be prevented.
Once again, thank you for your letter. I am pleased that you are engaged in this important issue and hope you continue to inform me of issues that matter to you. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact my office in Washington, D.C. at (202) 224-3841, or visit my website at http://www.feinstein.senate.gov.
I left the contact info on porpose so someone can let her know how they feel. I have a problem when someone says to me they agree with the "House Version" of this bill. I don't know what to think of her. She obviously has been in Washington too long.
