The House of Representatives has ignored objections from Barack Obama's administration and approved legislation aimed at helping to thwart electronic attacks on critical US infrastructure and private companies.
On a bipartisan vote of 248-168, the Republican-controlled House backed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (Cispa), which would encourage companies and the federal government to share information collected on the internet to prevent electronic attacks from cybercriminals, foreign governments and terrorists.
"This is the last bastion of things we need to do to protect this country," Republican Mike Rogers, chairman of the House intelligence committee, said after more than five hours of debate.
More than 10 years after the September 11 terror attacks in 2001, proponents cast the bill as an initial step to deal with an evolving threat of the internet age. The information-sharing would be voluntary to avoid imposing new regulations on businesses, an imperative for Republicans.
The legislation would allow the government to relay cyber threat information to a company to prevent attacks from Russia or China. In the private sector, corporations could alert the government and provide data that could stop an attack intended to disrupt... Source/Origin >> Read More
