Congress passes budget bill; Hidden inside was the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act[Updated]

[AndThenThereWas1]

Last year lawmakers attempted to pass the CISA act, however due to a major backlash from the public and major organizations including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter and dozens more it failed to pass. 

This year lawmakers hid the CISA act inside the budget bill and as of today the bill has passed congress and it is expected to be passed into law by the president later today. If the president chooses to veto the bill it will essentially lead to a government shutdown. 

CISA was meant to allow companies to share information on cyber attacks — including data from private citizens — with other companies and the Department of Homeland Security. Once DHS had all the pertinent details, they could be passed along to the FBI and NSA for further investigation and, potentially, legal action. 

 

The problem with CISA is that is creates a backdoor for wiretaps. It allows "for government agencies to more easily keep tabs on Americans without their knowledge."

CISA had alarmed the privacy community by giving companies the ability to share cybersecurity information with federal agencies, including the NSA, “notwithstanding any other provision of law.” That means CISA’s information-sharing channel, ostensibly created for responding quickly to hacks and breaches, could also provide a loophole in privacy laws that enabled intelligence and law enforcement surveillance without a warrant.

 

That was CISA of 2014, CISA of 2015 is even worse than last year. Many provisions have been stripped out. This Years act:

creates the ability for the president to set up “portals” for agencies like the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, so that companies hand information directly to law enforcement and intelligence agencies instead of to the Department of Homeland Security. And it also changes when information shared for cybersecurity reasons can be used for law enforcement investigations. The earlier bill had only allowed that backchannel use of the data for law enforcement in cases of “imminent threats,” while the new bill requires just a “specific threat,” potentially allowing the search of the data for any specific terms regardless of timeliness. 

 

Lawmakers finally found a way to get CISA passed into law. By putting it into a budget bill they are forcing the president to sign it into law. Not doing so would cause a government shutdown and would withhold an astonishing 19.3 Billion dollars from NASA. It is astounding the lengths that lawmakers will go to to get what they want. 

 

Update:

The budget bill was signed by Obama on Friday afternoon. This includes the approval of the CISA act.

 

Sources

theVerge

engadget

Wired

[Sauron]

In other words, screw those guys

[Altecice]

Why arent people going to jail for Law Smuggling?... ohh wait big business thats why.

"Steal $1000 go to jail, steal $100m and get fined"

[PlayStation 2]

Why doesn't this surprise me

[thatguyyouknow75]

Ha I fooled them. People think the tin foil on my head is just for fashion but little do they know it prevents uncle Sam from reading my brain waves. Now just to solve the issue of the lsd that they release into the air out of the back of passenger jets (that's the trail you see)

[That Norwegian Guy]

How Americans aren't lining up to flee away in droves boggles the mind. Canada is literally a hop and a skip away. Hell, I'd rather live in Mexico. Nicaragua, Cuba, Jamaica, all easily more attractive options than USA.

[Virtual01]

B-b-but guys, we're a democracy! Nothing like this would happen in a democracy! Right?

 

RIP USA

[Masada02]

This is one of the most messed up parts of our government. The fact that any asshat in congress can just pin whatever they want to a bill before it's passed is truly a terrible idea and needs to be changed. I can't believe we haven't fixed this loophole yet.

 

B-b-but guys, we're a democracy! Nothing like this would happen in a democracy! Right?

 

RIP USA

The USA is not a democracy. It's a federal republic. There is a difference.

[Arty]

Ha I fooled them. People think the tin foil on my head is just for fashion but little do they know it prevents uncle Sam from reading my brain waves. Now just to solve the issue of the lsd that they release into the air out of the back of passenger jets (that's the trail you see)

i mean the Government did realse lsd to califonria citizens like 45 years ago to test the abilty to control minds.sooooo............

[Bouzoo]

This is something Yoda would say. Literally. 

[EChondo]

How Americans aren't lining up to flee away in droves boggles the mind. Canada is literally a hop and a skip away. Hell, I'd rather live in Mexico. Nicaragua, Cuba, Jamaica, all easily more attractive options than USA.

Yeah, Canada and Mexico are way better options than the U.S. /s

 

If I'm going to uproot and move to a whole new country it's going to be in Europe, hopefully Switzerland for personal preference, but Canada/Mexico? Hell no. That free health care benefit only goes so far and Mexico is a whole different piece of crap right now. Out of all places to migrate to, Mexico is dead last on my list.

[thatguyyouknow75]

Yeah, Canada and Mexico are way better options than the U.S. /s If I'm going to uproot and move to a whole new country it's going to be in Europe, hopefully Switzerland for personal preference, but Canada/Mexico? Hell no. That free health care benefit only goes so far and Mexico is a whole different piece of crap right now. Out of all places to migrate to, Mexico is dead last on my list.

Hell nah, US has issues but it's great. If I had to live anywhere else it'd be Australia or new Zealand

[Timmahnz]

Hell nah, US has issues but it's great. If I had to live anywhere else it'd be Australia or new Zealand

 

 

Come to NZ, our animals aren't out to kill you

[thatguyyouknow75]

Come to NZ, our animals aren't out to kill you

The only thing holding me back is education (us has undeniably the best universities) and that I'm a gun enthusiast and collector and I know Australia won't have em and I'm pretty sure NZ won't either

[HalGameGuru]

There are those people out there sayin' "If they come fer our guns there's gonna be a civil war!" well sorry fellas but THIS kind of crap is just as strong an argument to take up arms and those people are eerily quiet when it's not some pet peeve of government overstep.

 

This kind of legislation is the proof of the pudding. Your own government has no respect for you or your rights.

[TetraSky]

I hope Obama does the right thing and veto this garbage even if it leads to a gov shutdown. This sort of behavior shouldn't be allowed by lawmakers.

[GeekJump]

Why arent people going to jail for Law Smuggling?... ohh wait big business thats why.

"Steal $1000 go to jail, steal $100m and get fined"

 

but this bill is the opposite of what big business wanted. They don't want to be forced to give the government their private data.

 

This is crappy but it's one of those things where, if you're not doing anything illegal, you should be okay. Yea the government will know about your weird porn fetishes but pretty sure they care more about looking for terrorists and such

[Swndlr]

How Americans aren't lining up to flee away in droves boggles the mind. Canada is literally a hop and a skip away. Hell, I'd rather live in Mexico. Nicaragua, Cuba, Jamaica, all easily more attractive options than USA.

Not as simple as just pack your shit and leave...

[CommandMan7]

To all the people yelling "leave the US", why don't you just wait 20 years. If you look back, PC flares up every few decades and bad stuff happens, then something good happens to restore relative control to the people. This cycle is pretty severe compared to the previous ones, but it'll go away eventually and the government will start at least pretending to care.

[AresKrieger]

 

It's only a matter of time.....

[winningsince1337]

How Americans aren't lining up to flee away in droves boggles the mind. Canada is literally a hop and a skip away. Hell, I'd rather live in Mexico. Nicaragua, Cuba, Jamaica, all easily more attractive options than USA.

Hah! for you to think it'd be better in Canada or Mexico shows your naivety. Go read some world news about mexico and tell me you still want to live there.

[That Norwegian Guy]

Hah! for you to think it'd be better in Canada or Mexico shows your naivety. Go read some world news about mexico and tell me you still want to live there.

 

It's a 'pick your poison' situation. I'm fully aware of goings on in Mexico. And USA's poison is still worse.

 

It's a hypothetical anyway, I don't live in the US and I have no "upgrade path" anyway.

[HalGameGuru]

I'm not sure which poison in america is worse, granted a lot of the poison in mexico is due to american legislation... but... no.

 

 

As for ACTUALLY expatriating... no... if you are an american you basically have to sell your children and commit seppukku before you can legally sever ties, and even after doing all that it is at the discretion of the government whether they will let you leave, and if they ever decide you still owe them anything they reserve the right to hunt you down anywhere on earth and drag you back to pay up.

[BobbyG2]

Where can vote in favor of shutting down the government?

[Trik'Stari]

This is legislation without representation. This needs to either be vetoed, or brought before the supreme court.