The Return of CISPA 97
Presto Vivace sends this news from the Hill:
"House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and ranking member Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) said Friday that they plan to re-introduce the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) next week during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. The bill is aimed at improving information-sharing about cyber threats between government and industry so cyberattacks can be thwarted in real time. ... It would also encourage companies to share anonymous cyber-threat information with one another, and provide liability protection for businesses so they don't get hit with legal action for sharing data about cyber threats. "
You may recall CISPA from last year, when it was hailed as being even worse than SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act. We discussed why it was a bad bill back then; the new version is reportedly identical, so all of the same reasons will apply. The bill stalled last year against White House plans to veto it. Congressman Rogers said this about privacy fears: "We're talking about exchanging packets of information, zeroes and ones, if you will, one hundred millions times a second. So some notion that this is a horrible invasion of content reading is wrong. It is not even close to that." Don't worry folks; it's just zeroes and ones.
Ca-ching! (Score:5, Insightful)
zeros and ones (Score:5, Insightful)
"it's just zeroes and ones"
okay, so if I start downloading MP3 and video files, the RIAA and MPAA will not object, because it's just zeroes and ones, right?
Billions of zeros and ones per second (Score:5, Insightful)
If the government isn't going to be reading them, then I assume we can cease construction of the huge new NSA data center in Utah [wired.com]?
Tracking, Money, and Fighting Back (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Track politicians. Get a sense of who, over time, is authoring, signing on, voting for, or otherwise supporting these bills. Companies develop advanced analytics by tracking consumer behavior, let's do the same by tracking politician behavior.
2. Let's barge into the money game. By identifying and publicly shaming/boycotting involved companies (with a focus on attacking their brand), and raising money to support politicians who reliably stand against these kids of bills.
3. Continuing to raise awareness. Internet outrage sparked the death of SOPA. We can keep doing it over and over. We can also start supporting primary opponents and general election opponents against politicians we've tracked and verified push these bills.
Re:zeros and ones (Score:5, Insightful)
"it's just zeroes and ones"
If that's all it is, then why is he so concerned about these zeros and ones that he was convinced to submit this bill in the first place?
Re:Ca-ching! (Score:5, Insightful)
This also explains the recent wave of 'cyber-war' fear-mongering that's been going on.
I wish that Congresscritters... (Score:5, Insightful)
...or their staffs knew half as much about technology as the average teenager.
Whoever wrote the bill knows exactly what the intent of all this monitoring and exchange of data is for. And those people did another masterful job of training these elected buffoons to spout crap like "it's only ones and zeros" to divert attention from that intent.
Maybe someone should ask Rogers exactly what an alphabetic character looks like when it is transmitted across the internet. (My guess is that he doesn't care unless he's getting a campaign contribution as a reward for knowing that.)
Re:I wish that Congresscritters... (Score:5, Insightful)
Whoever wrote the bill knows exactly what the intent of all this monitoring and exchange of data is for.
Congress doesn't write the laws they actually pass, they may change the wording or an ammendment but by and large they come from staff or from lobbyists. In the case of CISPA I would have to think that some federal agency decided to push it forward, possibly the NSA? Anyway, I'd really be interested in understanding who actually wrote vs. sponsored this piece of crap.
Re:I wish that Congresscritters... (Score:4, Insightful)
...or their staffs knew half as much about technology as the average teenager.
Whoever wrote the bill knows exactly what the intent of all this monitoring and exchange of data is for. And those people did another masterful job of training these elected buffoons to spout crap like "it's only ones and zeros" to divert attention from that intent.
Maybe someone should ask Rogers exactly what an alphabetic character looks like when it is transmitted across the internet. (My guess is that he doesn't care unless he's getting a campaign contribution as a reward for knowing that.)
Or, we can ask Rogers where he stands on the Abortion debate. After all, all lifeforms are just made up of electrons, protons and neutrons.
Draw parallels between this debate and something there'd be a political mess about if he made the same arguments, and you'll see things change quickly.