Response from Paul Broun (GA-10) on CISPA

Today I received, from a source, a letter from Congressman Paul Broun detailing why he voted NO on CISPA last week. It was in response to a plea from that source, a constituent of his, to vote against it.

It's also noticeable that the letter is dated a day AFTER the Senate decided it was a no-go. Coincidence? You decide.

Dear [REDACTED]

Thank you for contacting me to share your concerns about H.R. 624, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). I appreciate having the benefit of your views on this important issue, and I want you to know I share your concerns.

As you may know, CISPA was introduced by Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI) and would authorize the sharing of cyber-security threat data between the private sector and the federal government. This bill was passed by the House of Representatives by a 288-127 vote on April 18, 2013 and it now awaits consideration by the Senate.

Rep Broun was actually one of the few Republicans that voted against it.

Since Congress first considered CISPA last year, I have become increasingly concerned that individual privacy was not adequately protected in this legislation; specifically, that people's personally-identifying information may be shared with the federal government without their knowledge or consent. As a result, I fear that the measures in this legislation may infringe upon Americans' Fourth Amendment rights.

And what about all the other infringements on 4th Amendment rights, have you done anything about them? National Security letters, drones, warrantless wiretaps? Anything? No.

For these reasons, I joined with some like-minded colleagues in offering amendments to limit the ability of the federal government to use the data under CISPA and strip and shared data of identifying information. Unfortunately, these amendments were not permitted to be considered on the House floor. While I certainly agree that we must address the threat posed by cyber security attacks,

WHAT threat? The non-existent threat? The one made up? Forbes has a list of ‘the biggest cybersecurity threats of 2013’. Top of the list? Social Engineering, or as it’s more commonly known, Con-men. It’s how most ‘hacking’ has gone on for years, and CISPA would do nothing. Likewise threat 3 is ‘internal threats’ and 4 is ‘bring your own device’. Three of the top 4 are all from inside the company.

Number 2 is "long-term threats", slowly siphoning information, 5 is ‘cloud security’ and 6 is ‘html5’. Or in other words, don’t be sloppy with what you do. Oh, and part of the reason cloud security isn’t great and is such a good attack vector, it’s the government wanting access to ‘protect’ things from things, you know, with CISPA and the like...

 It’s not until threat 7 – Botnets – and threat 8 (precision targeted malware) that you get anything CISPA might tackle. Except botnets are mainly good for DDOS and not much else and are an annoyance, while precision targeted malware will, by definition, not be easy to stop at all. Oh, and this ‘threat’ is really rare right now, but MAY ramp up, hence it’s inclusion at the bottom of the list.

In short, it’s 1 PEBKAC, 2 stupid code monkey, 3 PEBKAC, 4 PEBCAK & codemonkey, 5 codemonkey and the government, 6 codemonkey, 7 annoyance, and 8 something CISPA MAY address but is a very limited threat right now.

So, do you want to re-address how much of a ‘threat’ this stuff is? Education would do it, (and not in the ‘Earth was created in 144 hours’ way, but based on reality) and an end to accepting half-finished software. CISPA or any other direct legislative measure won’t work.

I believe we must pass legislation that includes clear definitions of what data may be shared and how that data may be used, so that Americans never have to sacrifice their privacy or liberty for the sake of security.

Er, have you missed the TSA, the USA PATRIOT Act, FISA Amendment Act (oh, you didn’t even vote on that one), and the many other acts that Congress, and your party have supported.

Here’s a better idea. Let’s have NO data shared, so that Americans don’t sacrifice their privacy or Liberty for an illusion of security.

Due to the fact that these concerns remained unaddressed in the final legislation, I could not support this CISPA's passage. 

For additional information regarding issues affecting our great state of Georgia and the nation, please visit my website at http://broun.house.gov/. Access to my blog, iPhone app, and e-newsletter are all available through my website, as well. Thank you again for contacting me, and please do not hesitate to do so in the future if I can ever be of service.

Respectfully yours, 

Paul C. Broun, M.D.Member of Congress

Yes, an iPhone app, because nothing says ‘privacy’ like Apple….

For now, it looks like the passage of CISPA is on hold, again, but we’ll see if it stays that way. Just to be sure though, Contact your Senators. And support the Pirate Party of Georgia