Librarians and privacy advocates ally to condemn cybersecurity bill
Source: The Guardian
Librarians and privacy advocates ally to condemn cybersecurity bill
Dominic Rushe
Wednesday 9 December 2015 16.00 GMT
US librarians have joined with a host of civil liberties groups to condemn a cybersecurity bill now passing through Congress they claim will be both unhelpful and dangerous to Americans civil liberties.
The American Library Association, the worlds oldest and largest library affiliation, has joined with 18 other groups including Fight for the Future, Demand Progress and FreedomWorks to issue a letter to the White House and Congress urging lawmakers to oppose the final version of a bill they claim will dramatically expand government surveillance while failing to tackle cyber-attacks.
Politicians from both sides of the House have been pushing for stronger cybersecurity measures in the wake of the Paris attacks and the recent San Bernardino shooting.
Republican House speaker Paul Ryan has been leading the charge to push through legislation and reconcile two bills, the Protecting Cyber Networks Act (PCNA) and the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement with the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 (Cisa), a controversial bill that passed a Senate vote in October.
The speed with which Ryan is trying to push through a compromise has worried privacy activists. Weve just learned that the Intelligence Committees are trying to pull a fast one, Nathan White, senior legislative manager at digital rights advocate Access, said in a recent email to supporters. Theyve been negotiating in secret and came up with a Frankenstein bill that has some of the worst parts from both the House and the Senate versions.
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/09/cisa-cybersecurity-bill-congress-american-library-association-letter