House Judiciary Exploring ‘All Possibilities’ to Combat Cybercrime, Aide Says
The House Judiciary Committee is looking at “all possibilities” for addressing cybercrime as part of the greater push on Capitol Hill to address cybersecurity issues, said Sam Ramer, the committee’s senior counsel. Cybersecurity is a “top priority” for Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., Ramer said at a Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee panel Friday. He noted the House Crime Subcommittee held a hearing Wednesday on cybercrime and possible reforms to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CD Mar 14 p1). There’s no singular “keystone” to addressing cybersecurity issues because those issues “affect so many different areas of our lives -- personal, commercial, R&D, medical,” Ramer said.
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The timeline on the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is “pretty much going to determine” when other cybersecurity legislation comes to the floor in the coming months, said Michael Hermann, homeland security aide for Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I. Two cybersecurity bills cleared the House Science Committee Thursday: the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act and the Advancing America’s Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act (CD Mar 15 p7).
Industry and government stakeholders have consistently said they need more information sharing -- “they need some form of the information that the industry is collecting,” Hermann said. “What is stripped out of that is, I think, an area where the language will probably evolve -- before we come to the floor or on the floor -- but the fundamental need for information sharing is still there."
CISPA, which won House approval last year but failed in the Senate amid a threatened White House veto, has been a lightning rod for criticism by civil liberties groups since it was reintroduced in February. The bill is an “overbroad” solution to what is essentially a narrow gap in information sharing rules, said Greg Nojeim, senior counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology. A more effective legislative fix would be to make changes to the Wiretap Act, he said. The debate over CISPA has evolved since last year, and some areas of the bill can be adjusted to improve civil liberties protections -- but that’s unlikely to get the bill to a point where civil liberties groups will back it, Hermann said.