DHS Letter Critical of Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act Shows Bill's Flaws, Franken Says
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., raised concerns Monday about the effort to tee up the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S-754) for a Senate vote this week (see 1507300069), citing a letter from Department Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in which…
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Mayorkas said the bill has the potential to undermine existing cybersecurity work and could hurt existing privacy and civil liberties protections. Franken, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Privacy Subcommittee and an opponent of S-754, had sought information from DHS on how the potential for cybersecurity information sharing outside the department would affect DHS work. Provisions in S-754 that would allow companies to share cyberthreat information with agencies outside DHS are particularly worrisome because those provisions “could sweep away important privacy protections,” Mayorkas said. DHS is also concerned that allowing information sharing via other federal agencies “rather than initially provided through one entity, the complexity -- for both government and businesses -- and inefficiency of any information sharing program will markedly increase; developing a single, comprehensive picture of the range of cyber threats faced daily will become more difficult,” Mayorkas said. “This will limit the ability of DHS to connect the dots and proactively recognize emerging risks and help private and public organizations implement effective mitigations to reduce the likelihood of damaging incidents.” Mayorkas’ letter “makes it overwhelmingly clear that, if the Senate moves forward with this cybersecurity information-sharing bill, we are at risk of sweeping away important privacy protections and civil liberties, and we would actually increase the difficulty and complexity of information sharing, undermining our nation's cybersecurity objectives,” Franken said in a statement. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., didn't comment Monday about the Mayorkas letter but said Senate leaders continue to plan to bring S-754 up after the Senate considers a bill to end federal funding of Planned Parenthood (S-1881).