CISPA Cyber Security

Brooke Kennedy

American History

Carter Glass

3 May 2013

Bibliography:

"CISPA: Cybersecurity bill stumbles in Senate - CBS News." Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News - CBS News. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May 2013. <http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57581592/cispa-cybersecurity-bill-stumbles-in-senate/>.

Summary:

CISPA is the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act that is probably not going to get passed. If this did get passed the big companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter would all be accessible to the federal government without a warrant. Right now the only ways that the government can see what you are doing online is if they suspect you of a crime, then they get a warrant, then they have to request the data from each company. If CISPA passes they wont need anything to search your data. Right now you can adjust your privacy levels all on Facebook, Tumblr, Youtube, Google, twitter, Amazon, Flicker, Yahoo!, Ebay, and more. But with CISPA nothing will be completely private ever. The Senate has suggested that they will probably not pass this cyber security bill but create their own cyber security bill instead. The House of Representatives on April 18 but president Obama says he will not pass the bill if it comes to him.

Analysis:

I don't know enough about CISPA to say that I am 100% for or against it. I feel that it can be a very useful thing when it comes to criminals and catching them quicker such as in the situation of the Boston Bombings. However, the government managed to get one of the brothers alive and in custody within a few days without CISPA. Would they have been able to get him sooner and potentially saved a life or two in the process? Maybe. I think that in certain situations it is comforting to know that the government easily has full access to everything that a person has ever looked at on the Internet. I also think that if you have nothing to hide then the government having full access to all that you search on the Internet easily shouldn't be a problem. But on the other hand it is comforting to know that you have the freedom to search whatever you want without someone spying on you because of it.