What is going on?
CISPA[1] , or The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, is a bill that has just passed the House of Representitives and is currently working its way through the Senate[2] . If you don’t remember this bill from last year’s blackout[3] ; you’re in luck, because it’s been reintroduced!
In order to raise awareness for this legislation, many subreddits are blacking out and trying to do their part.
Okay, but what does it do and why should I care?
First of all, here is the complete text[4] . Please take the time to actually read it. It is important to be fully informed as there is a lot of misinformation about the purpose of this bill. Relax, it’s not as long as you think it is.
CISPA is a bill focused on Cyber Security. It’s meant to address growing concerns for Cyber threats and give protection to businesses who handle your personal information. The number one threat to your personal information is malicious attackers, and it costs much more to defend from attacks than to initiate them. CISPA puts more tools in businesses’ hands, but it brings into the question of security vs privacy.
So, what exactly is a Cyber Threat?
(A) IN GENERAL- The term ‘cyber threat information’ means information directly pertaining to–
Internet Anonymization: Tor[6] , I2P[7]
Disk Encryption: TrueCrypt[8] , File Vault[9] (Mac).
File/Email Encryption: GPGTools[10] + GPGMail[11] (Mac), Enigmail[12]
IM/Voice Encryption: Jitsi[13]
IM Encryption: Pidgin[14] + Pidgin OTR[15]
SMS/Voice Encryption: WhisperSystems[16] , Silent Circle[17] ($$$)
Digital P2P Currency: BitCoin[18]
Live Anonymous/Secure Linux: TAILS Linux[19]
