President Obama on Tuesday will propose legislation encouraging private companies to share sensitive information on cyber threats with the federal government, offering them protection from lawsuits in exchange for cooperation.
The latest legislative push is perhaps the trickiest part of the president’s plan to beef up cyber protections in the wake of the hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Major corporations have previously balked at sharing such information with the government — and it is not yet clear whether the president’s assurances will alleviate their concerns.
“Today, at a time when public and private networks are facing an unprecedented threat from rogue hackers as well as organized crime and even state actors, the president is unveiling the next steps in his plan to defend the nation’s systems,” the White House said. “These include a new legislative proposal, building on important work in Congress, to solve the challenges of information sharing that can cripple response to a cyberattack. They also include revisions to those provisions of our 2011 legislative proposal on which Congress has yet to take action, and along with them, the president is extending an invitation to work in a bipartisan, bicameral manner to advance this urgent priority for the American people.”
Under the proposal, private companies would share cyberthreat information with the Department of Homeland Security, which would pass along the data to other government entities and groups established by the private sector to address cyber crimes.
The administration would offer legal protections to the businesses, assuming they met guidelines for safeguarding the privacy information of consumers.
The legislative pitch largely mirrors the long-stalled Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. But Obama is banking that the prevalence of high-profile hacking incidents will create movement on Capitol Hill.
The president will announce the plan during a visit Tuesday afternoon to the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center. He’ll also discuss the proposal with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders at a White House meeting Tuesday morning.
Also part of the cyber push, Obama on Monday called for legislation that would require companies to notify customers within 30 days if their personal information had been compromised and prohibit the selling of student data to third parties for non-education purposes.
