My Letter to Congress: H.R.3523 Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act

I am writing as your constituent in the 16th Congressional district of Ohio. I oppose H.R.3523 - Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, and am tracking it using OpenCongress.org, the free public resource website for government transparency and accountability.

Sincerely,
Daniel Farris

May 1, 2012







Dear Mr. Farris,

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns regarding H.R. 3523, the
Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). Your views are
important to me as I work to effectively represent you and Ohio's 16th
Congressional District.

Our nation is under a constant threat of cyberattacks from
sophisticated criminal organizations and hostile foreign nations, such
as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. Cyber terrorists infiltrate
business networks in order to obtain personal records, passwords, bank
information, and intellectual property. They breach government
databases to extract state secrets, and manipulate infrastructure,
including electrical grids. Overall, estimates of loss from economic
espionage range anywhere from $2 billion to $400 billion a year. One
credit card company estimates they get attacked for customers' personal
information 300,000 times a day; another company estimated they lost
20,000 good paying American manufacturing jobs because countries like
China stole their intellectual property and illegally competed against
them in the market.



CISPA will remove legal barriers that currently prevent government
agencies from sharing information about certain cybersecurity threats
with the private sector. Access to this information will allow our job
creators to execute defensive measures to protect their networks and
their customers' private information. Additionally, CISPA establishes
incentives for industry to voluntarily share cyber threat information
with intelligence agencies in order to ensure all parties are aware of
the latest attacks. Because malicious activity against one company or
government network tends to correspond with attacks on others, a
coordinated effort between companies and the government is crucial to
combating the latest threats. CISPA fosters this cooperative
environment of voluntary information sharing without extending any new
regulatory authority to federal agencies.



First and foremost, this bill is an information sharing bill, not an
information monitoring bill. The legislation strictly prohibits the
government from monitoring private networks, reading private emails and
prevents the government from censoring or shutting down websites. The
information used by the government is narrowly limited to instances
involving cybersecurity or national security threats. If there is any
violation of this limitation, the bill specifically states that the
government may be held liable for actual damages, costs, and attorney's
fees in a federal court. Further, private companies are also subject
to strict privacy requirements and may also be held liable for misusing
the personal information of their customers.



CISPA also requires that the Inspector General conduct an annual report
that lists all federal agencies receiving shared information, which
will improve oversight and transparency in an effort to ensure none of
the information provided to the government is mishandled or misused.
Lastly, this legislation will sunset after 5 years to ensure that
Congress revisit the impact and determine if it is still necessary and
or relevant.



As the strongest and most complex economy in the world we must remain
vigilant in our efforts to protect U.S. companies, workers and
customers. It is imperative that our regulatory structure keep pace
with the latest innovations and threats. It is for these reasons I
supported this bi-partisan legislation. The bill passed the House of
Representatives on April 26, 2012, by a vote of 248 to 168. It
currently sits with the Senate where it awaits further legislative
action.



Again, I would like to thank you for contacting me on this issue. In
the future I encourage you to visit my website www.renacci.house.gov
where you can email me any other
concerns that you have. If you would like to stay up to date with what
I am doing in the 16th District and in Washington, follow me on
Facebook and Twitter to receive frequent updates at
www.facebook.com/repjimrenacci
and www.twitter.com/repjimrenacci
.






Sincerely,

Congressman Jim Renacci
Member of Congress