CISPA has been passed by the House.

[The_Mothman]

http://gawker.com/5905584/cispa-passes-house

First, the fucking Patriot Act. Then the NDAA. Now CISPA. More privacy invasion. Yay.

[JansonReborn]

Of coarse, people dont care much about it because facebook and google were roped in by the government for this one. So there is almost no awareness of it among americans. Apparently its even worse than SOPA.

[XsrdX22]

Can someone explain what this is?

[Evlmstr]

Obama said he'd veto the bill iirc, so I don't think we will have to worry about it

[wakaflare]

Hopefully this will explain it well enough to you http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57...ffect-you-faq/.

To put in very simplistic terms, it's a huge danger to privacy on the internet.

[wakaflare]

Can someone explain what this is?

Hopefully this will explain it well enough to you http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57...ffect-you-faq/

To put in very simplistic terms, it's a huge danger to privacy on the internet.

[XsrdX22]

Thanks.
Huh, well that sucks. So even if I set up some bangin' security on my computer (My brother is in college for networking and basically ethical hacking), the government can barge on through and look at what I'm doing?

[Mr_Quick]

Thanks.
Huh, well that sucks. So even if I set up some bangin' security on my computer (My brother is in college for networking and basically ethical hacking), the government can barge on through and look at what I'm doing?

Negative. Here is the full text of the section that's got people so worked up:

‘(b) USE OF CYBERSECURITY SYSTEMS AND SHAR-
18 ING OF CYBER THREAT INFORMATION.—
‘(1) IN GENERAL.—
20 ‘‘(A) CYBERSECURITY PROVIDERS.—Not-
21 withstanding any other provision of law, a cy-
22 bersecurity provider, with the express consent
23 of a protected entity for which such cybersecu-
24 rity provider is providing goods or services for
1 cybersecurity purposes, may, for cybersecurity
2 purposes—
3 ‘‘(i) use cybersecurity systems to iden-
4 tify and obtain cyber threat information to
5 protect the rights and property of such
6 protected entity; and
7 ‘‘(ii) share such cyber threat informa-
8 tion with any other entity designated by
9 such protected entity, including, if specifi-
10 cally designated, the Federal Government.

11 ‘‘(B) SELF-PROTECTED ENTITIES.—Not-
12 withstanding any other provision of law, a self-
13 protected entity may, for cybersecurity pur-
14 poses—
15 ‘‘(i) use cybersecurity systems to iden-
16 tify and obtain cyber threat information to
17 protect the rights and property of such
18 self-protected entity; and
19 ‘‘(ii) share such cyber threat informa-
20 tion with any other entity, including the
21 Federal Government.

In case you're wondering what the jargon means:

(7) CYBERSECURITY PROVIDER.—The term
2 ‘cybersecurity provider’ means a non-governmental
3 entity that provides goods or services intended to be
4 used for cybersecurity purposes.

‘‘(4) CYBER THREAT INFORMATION.—
2 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘cyber
3 threat information’ means information directly
4 pertaining to—
5 ‘‘(i) a vulnerability of a system or net-
6 work of a government or private entity;
7 ‘‘(ii) a threat to the integrity, con-
8 fidentiality, or availability of a system or
9 network of a government or private entity
10 or any information stored on, processed on,
11 or transiting such a system or network;
12 ‘‘(iii) efforts to deny access to or de-
13 grade, disrupt, or destroy a system or net-
14 work of a government or private entity; or
15 ‘‘(iv) efforts to gain unauthorized ac-
16 cess to a system or network of a govern-
17 ment or private entity, including to gain
18 such unauthorized access for the purpose
19 of exfiltrating information stored on, proc-
20 essed on, or transiting a system or network
21 of a government or private entity.
22 ‘‘(B) EXCLUSION.— Such term does not
23 include information pertaining to efforts to gain
24 unauthorized access to a system or network of
25 a government or private entity that solely in-
1 volve violations of consumer terms of service or
2 consumer licensing agreements and do not oth-
3 erwise constitute unauthorized access.

5 ‘‘(8) CYBERSECURITY PURPOSE.—
6 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘cybersecu-
7 rity purpose’ means the purpose of ensuring the
8 integrity, confidentiality, or availability of, or
9 safeguarding, a system or network, including
10 protecting a system or network from—
11 ‘‘(i) a vulnerability of a system or net-
12 work;
13 ‘‘(ii) a threat to the integrity, con-
14 fidentiality, or availability of a system or
15 network or any information stored on,
16 processed on, or transiting such a system
17 or network;
18 ‘‘(iii) efforts to deny access to or de-
19 grade, disrupt, or destroy a system or net-
20 work; or
21 ‘‘(iv) efforts to gain unauthorized ac-
22 cess to a system or network, including to
23 gain such unauthorized access for the pur-
24 pose of exfiltrating information stored on,
1 processed on, or transiting a system or
2 network.
‘‘(B) EXCLUSION.— Such term does not
4 include the purpose of protecting a system or
5 network from efforts to gain unauthorized ac-
6 cess to such system or network that solely in-
7 volve violations of consumer terms of service or
8 consumer licensing agreements and do not oth-
9 erwise constitute unauthorized access.

‘‘(12) SELF-PROTECTED ENTITY.—The term
2 ‘self-protected entity’ means an entity, other than an
3 individual, that provides goods or services for cyber-
4 security purposes to itself.

As for the list of sensitive records that the CNET article says the government could gain access to this way, like medical records? Well, most of that information is stuff they already have, like "census data", which made me laugh out loud. Beyond that, there's this little problem:

PROTECTION OF SENSITIVE PERSONAL
22 DOCUMENTS.—The Federal Government may not
23 use the following information, containing informa-
24 tion that identifies a person, shared with the Federal
25 Government in accordance with subsection (b):
1 ‘‘(A) Library circulation records.
2 ‘‘(B) Library patron lists.
3 ‘‘(C) Book sales records.
4 ‘‘(D) Book customer lists.
5 ‘‘(E) Firearms sales records.
6 ‘‘(F) Tax return records.
7 ‘‘(G) Educational records.
8 ‘‘(H) Medical records.

In sum, all the bill does is allow (not force, allow) certain companies to share cybersecurity information with the federal government if they deem it necessary, with the consent of the entity the information concerns. So if a cybersecurity company is contracted to secure Company A's corporate network, said cybersecurity company can share information regarding the security of said network with the feds if they receive Company A's consent. That's it. Most of the opposition appears to be based on misinformation and ignorance of the bill's actual text, especially the folks talking about how this is the worst thing since the Patriot Act and such.

[Evlmstr]

^Wasn't really worked up about it because of the veto threat, but good to know