Found this via a tweet by Rep. Ruppersberger . . . not sure of the exact source, but it looks to be advocacy material from Rep. Ruppersberger’s office.
Anywho, here’s a myth/fact sheet on CISPA. The myths and facts may be a bit biased (Rep. Ruppersberger supports CISPA), but it’s still worth a look. Here’s a few excerpts:
MYTH: CISPA militarizes the internet and cyber security and creates new authorities for the government to collect personal information on Americans.
FACT: The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, known as CISPA, does not allow the military, including the National Security Agency (NSA), to collect any personal information about Americans. In fact, the legislation strictly prohibits any expansion of any agency’s (including the NSA’s) current authorities.
. . .
MYTH: CISPA creates a wide-ranging government surveillance program.
FACT: CISPA has nothing to do with government surveillance. It simply provides narrow authority to share anonymous cyber threat information between the government and the private sector so they can protect their networks and their customers’ private information.
. . .
MYTH: Cyber programs are better housed ONLY at a civilian agency. Programs housed under non-civilian agencies are not subject to any meaningful public oversight.
FACT: Both non-civilian agencies, such as the NSA, and civilian agencies, like the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), have the capacity to ensure accountability and rigorous internal and external oversight.
. . .
MYTH: The definition of “cyber threat information” in the bill is too broad.
FACT: Under the bill a company may only identify and share cyber threat information for “cybersecurity purposes”; that is only when they are seeking to protect their own systems or networks.
There’s more, and I cut off large amounts of the “fact” sections in the excerpts above.
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