24 Apr New Cyber Bill Falls Short Because Congress Doesn’t Understand The Internet
It’s taken several years, billions of dollars in breaches, and one large-scale hack that rocked the entertainment industry, but Congress is finally on the verge of passing a cybersecurity bill that could make Target breaches far less devastating.
In a majority 307-116 vote Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Protecting Cyber Networks Act, a bill that would let private companies grant real-time access to their computer systems to federal agencies and other companies to better fend off cyber threats.
It’s a much-needed bill that has consistently stalled in Congress, but is now finally getting traction. There’s just one problem: Congress tackles cybersecurity as it does other issues, with vague language that doesn’t fully take into account the effects of opening up several, massive computer networks for data sharing will have.
PCNA comes with some consumer protections, such as sanitizing personal data by both the company and the government agency. The lack of such protections has kept privacy advocates like Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) from cosigning pass iterations of the bill.
Speaking on the House floor Wednesday, Schiff lauded the bill for protecting consumers from hackers, by allowing the real-time exchange of information that could be linked to a current or future cyberattack.