House Intelligence Committee Nearing Release of Cyber Info Sharing Bill, Chairman Says

to mirror the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S-754), which the Senate Intelligence Committee cleared 14-1 March 13. The committee released the post-markup text of the bill Tuesday, followed swiftly by vocal opposition to the revised bill from leading privacy groups. The revised version of S-754 includes several amendments that enhance the bill’s privacy protections. Still, the Center for Democracy & Technology is “troubled that the bill continues to authorize companies to share communications information directly with the National Security Agency, and to require that information shared with one federal agency be immediately shared throughout the government, including with the NSA," said senior counsel Greg Nojeim in a blog post Thursday.The balance between improving cybersecurity and protecting privacy was on the minds of House Intelligence members Thursday, with NSA and Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chairman Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., asking, “How can we get rid of that concern?” FireEye Chief Security Strategist Richard Bejtlich said the sharing of IP address information is likely to be the most problematic type of information that could be included in cyberthreat information shared with the government. House Intelligence could improve the public’s trust in its bill by listing the specific types of data that it would allow to be shared, Bejtlich said.