After eight months of delays, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) finally reached the Senate floor this week.
Advocates for the bill, including Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman and bill co-sponsor Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), stressed the need for the free flow of cyber threat information at a time when staggering numbers of data breaches are hitting various industries.
Opponents of the bill, including Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), civil liberties groups and tech companies refute the bill, arguing that it will unjustly grant government agencies unlimited access to citizens’ personal information.
CISA supporters believe the legislation can be passed in the coming days, especially with Burr’s inclusion of eight amendments he and co-sponsor Sen. Dianne Feinstein put forward. Some of these modifications include limits on the kinds of information available for sharing, mandatory government reports on cyber threats and a notification system to inform individuals if their information has been inadequately shared.
Still, adversaries of the bill are pushing for more stringent amendments that would deny government sharing of any personal information in addition to the implementation of systems that review all data sent to the government.