President Obama’s attempt to overhaul online security policy is meeting resistance from civil libertarians, including Democratic lawmakers, who want to couple the cybersecurity push with languishing reforms to the National Security Agency.
The White House is aiming to convince private companies to share more information with the federal government as part of its plan to crack down on cyberattacks. But many in the president’s own party see the two topics as inextricably linked. The president and his spokesman Tuesday scrambled to differentiate the debate about government surveillance programs from its calls for greater collaboration in warding off cyber threats.
“I think we would feel a lot better about [information sharing] if there was any hope that change was on the horizon for the NSA,” a senior aide for a House Democratic lawmaker told the Washington Examiner. “It would give the White House’s privacy promises a whole lot more weight. It’s not exactly the best time to argue the administration should have even more information at its disposal.”
As part of a slate of legislative proposals, Obama is encouraging private companies to share sensitive information on cyber threats with the federal government, offering them the possibility of legislation protecting cooperating companies from lawsuits.
Business groups have been wary of similar proposals, noting that sharing information would make them vulnerable to lawsuits over consumer protection.
The White House is now simultaneously trying to convince civil liberties groups that their privacy concerns have been addressed and attempting to sell major corporations on the idea that sharing such information is in their interest, particularly following the hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
“This is a matter of public safety, of public health, and most of this infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector,” Obama said Tuesday. “So neither government nor the private sector can defend the nation alone. It’s going to have to be a shared mission — government and industry working hand in hand.”
Explaining Obama’s defense of the information-sharing provision, a senior administration official told reporters on background Tuesday that companies would have to take “reasonable steps” to remove personal information from the data turned over to the federal government.
Another key distinction, Obama’s defenders argue, is that the Department of Homeland Security, not the NSA, is the agency primarily responsible for sifting through the cyber data.
Still, some privacy advocates called Obama’s proposal inadequate, particularly with so many questions unresolved about the scope of the administration’s use of the private information of ordinary Americans.
“There is a legitimate concern mostly because of the way these proposals often work,” Mark Jaycox, a legislative analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told the Examiner Tuesday. He notes that the need for rapid turnover of information to DHS makes it more likely that personal customer information would not be adequately removed before the government receives the data.
The White House is already attempting to win over civil libertarians who are wary of the fallout from the cybersecurity legislation.
“We do believe it is possible to move forward on these tracks in a way that is in the best interest of the country,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday. “ And we shouldn’t allow disagreement over NSA reforms to impact the necessity of advancing on cybersecurity legislation as well.”
Obama could get his legislative reforms through Congress without widespread Democratic support but clearly wants more progressives to get on board with proposals that have repeatedly stalled on Capitol Hill. Similar legislation died in the Democrat-led Senate in the lame-duck session of Congress, and Republicans have been eager to showcase progressive division on the issue.
“The House has acted in a bipartisan way to pass important measures to bolster cybersecurity while protecting people’s privacy,” Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Tuesday. “Unfortunately, the Democratic-controlled Senate refused to act on some of these proposals. Republicans are ready to work with both parties to protect our country, and our economy, and put some common-sense measures on the president’s desk.”
This much is clear: The NSA’s most controversial surveillance technique isn’t going anywhere.
Despite Obama’s pledge to end the bulk collection of metadata, the administration in December quietly extended the controversial phone surveillance program, citing the lack of legislation on Capitol Hill.
And privacy advocates would like to use the cybersecurity debate to revisit NSA reforms.
“These issues are naturally related, and they ought to be considered together in an orderly way,” said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy. “But the politics of these issues throw a wrench into any reasonable approach. We’ll just have to see what is possible.”
