CISPA enjoys wide backing from enterprises

Microsoft has dropped support for the controversial cyber intelligence sharing bill, however

By Taylor Armerding

April 30, 2012 — CSO — The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), the proposed federal law passed last week by the U.S. House of Representatives that would promote the sharing of cyber threat information between private business and government, has generated plenty of outrage among privacy advocates.

But there are few complaints so far from the enterprise sector, since it would resolve complaints those firms have had for years about liability risks and legal hurdles of sharing cyberthreat information with each other and with the government.

More than two dozen companies and trade groups including Facebook, AT&T, TechAmerica, Boeing, IBM, Oracle, Symantec, CTIA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce support CISPA.

The one defector from that group over the weekend was Microsoft. The software giant withdrew its support in a statement saying it would oppose any law that would not allow it, "to honor the privacy and security promises we make to our customers."

But Torsten George, vice president worldwide marketing and products for risk management vendor Agiliance, says CISPA already addresses that concern. He calls it "probably the least intrusive" for enterprises of the various legislative proposals pending regarding information sharing on cyberthreats.

"It's a voluntary system," he says. "It's really up to the enterprise to participate or not. We've been waiting for many years for better cooperation between business and government."

The bills favored by the Obama administration and Democratic Senate leaders, he says, are more radical. "All commercial organizations that are considered part of the nation's critical infrastructure would be mandated to submit any kind of cyberthreat information to the government," George says. "And they would be audited on that."

George contends that CISPA, or something very much like it, is desperately needed to counter threats to enterprises and to U.S. citizens in general.

"This [possibility of cyber attacks] is more important than planes flying into the Twin Towers," he says. "It is the most important threat the country is facing."

"The hackers are sitting across the table and laughing at [the lack of cooperation between]government and the commercial space," George says. "You see hackers cooperating at all levels. It's done openly and daily, while it is at the infant stage (in the U.S.) between business and government. Something has to happen where information needs to be shared."

But more than than 50 security experts, university professors and entrepreneurs say CISPA is not the way to do it. The group sent an open letter to Congress last week opposing it.

"We take security very seriously, but we fervently believe that strong computer and network security does not require Internet users to sacrifice their privacy and civil liberties," the group said in the letter published on the website of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.