The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence will propose numerous amendments Wednesday when it marks up the Cyber Intelligence and Sharing Protection Act (CISPA) (H.R. 3523).
Committee Chairman Michael Rogers (R-Mich.) yesterday said during a conference call the marked up bill would limit the use of information that companies receive to a cybersecurity purpose only. Rogers said this was to address the misconception that the private sector companies would abuse the information for marketing or non-cybersecurity purposes.
Rogers said the marked up bill would also specify that industry would not be able to “hack back” in retaliation if cyber attacked. Rogers also said the marked up bill would further limit the government’s authorized use of cyber threat information shared by the private sector.
Rogers added the bill is not a “surveillance” bill and that it would not allow NSA nor other government agencies to “plug into” domestic networks and listen. The committee yesterday said via Twitter that CISPA creates no new authorities for the government to monitor private networks or communications.
Rogers and committee Ranking Member Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) in February reintroduced CISPA legislation that would provide liability protections to American businesses to enable them to share cyber threat information with each other and with the intelligence community on a voluntary basis.
The House passed CISPA last year 248-168, although President Barack Obama opposed the measure (Defense Daily, Feb. 14).