Amid pressure, lawmakers narrow scope of CISPA

On this morning’s show, we talked about how some privacy groups were calling for more restrictive language for the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA. Well, guess what: overnight, the sponsors of that bill have made changes to that bill. WE ARE JUST THAT POWERFUL. Not really, we were just reporting on a big outcry rising up against CISPA, specifically the parts that make it easy for private companies to report information about people to the government. Sponsors of the bill don’t want to see it shot down like SOPA was after a barrage of protests.

Says Hillicon Valley:

The new draft of the bill uses a different definition for a “cyber threat” that leaves out any reference to intellectual property infringement. Critics had warned that the bill’s definition was so broad that it could include people illegally downloading music and movies.

The new provision defines a cyber-threat as an effort to “gain unauthorized access to a system or network.”  

But so far, at least one group opposed to CISPA, the American Civil Liberties Union, says the language in the bill is still too vague and could give license to invasions of privacy and unfair prosecutions.