CISA cyber-security bill passes US Senate despite tech giants, privacy advocates, and civil libertarian groups expressing frustration. The US Senate has voted overwhelmingly to pass a version of the ( CISA ) Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act abillthat , has been debated for a very long time because it would authorize the government to conduct surveillance on citizens.
Many politicians, tech giants, data protection advocates, and civil libertarian groups are expressing their disappointment and concerns over the Senate's decision. CISA passed by a final vote of 74 to 21 and requires companies to share information about potential threats with the government.
Senate supporters who passed the controversial bill saw the measure as necessary in light of the countless data breaches suffered by American companies, including Sony Pictures, JP Morgan Chase, Anthem and the Office of Personnel Management.
CISA has been heavily criticized as it will only give advantages to government agencies to collect information about users, data that will be collected by the Department ofHomeland Security and shared with the FBI and the NSA .
Privacy advocates and parts of the security industry believe the controversial bill does not address problems caused by long-standing data breaches.
The House-Senate committee will decide on the final form of the bill, but experts are highly skeptical about the ability to amend it to address the problems in a truly proper way.
The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, considered the reincarnation of CISPA with a new guise, was approved by the US House on April 18, 2013, but was blocked by the Senate.
While CISPA was blocked by the Obama administration due to privacy concerns, CISA received the President's consent.
CISA , ” but does not address the issue of privacy.
Ahead of the final vote, major IT companies, including Apple, Google and Microsoft, also expressed privacy concerns about the bill and its requirement to share sensitive customer data with US agencies.
