CYBER WARS - The New Law

"Will a new cybersecurity law make us safer?" PBS NewsHour 12/29/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Folded into the massive spending and tax cut bill was a significant and controversial new law on cybersecurity.  The act encourages private companies to share data about hacks with the government, but it's raising questions among security advocates and privacy groups alike.  Jeffrey Brown talks to James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Elissa Shevinsky of JeKuDo.

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  Before the president and Congress left town for the holidays, they managed to enact a massive 2,000-page package of spending and tax cuts.  Typically, these laws draw attention only for the chaos they create, like shutting down the government.

But there’s a lot more deep inside, in this case, a significant and controversial new law governing cyber-security and Internet data.  The new law encourages private companies to share data about cyber-hacks with the government.  It protects companies from liability, and it also allows data to shared with other companies and with the Department of Homeland Security.

Lawmakers from both parties said it was a good deal.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, D-Calif.:  If someone sees a particular virus or harmful cyber-signature, they should tell others, so they can protect themselves.  That’s what this bill does.

REP. DEVIN NUNES, R-Calif.:  We believe that sharing is an area where you really can’t do any harm.  It doesn’t hurt anybody to have a way to talk.  But, right now, they can’t even talk.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, R-Maine:  Does it make sense that we require one case of measles to be reported to a federal government agency, but not a cyber-attack?

GWEN IFILL:  But there are some security advocates and privacy groups who say the law manages to go too far and not quite far enough.

Jeffrey Brown has that debate.

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  To understand more, we’re joined by James Lewis, senior fellow for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Elissa Shevinsky, founder of JeKuDo, a tech start-up designed to provide private communications to customers.