A Better Understanding Of The Government's Information Sharing Bills

After last year's high-profile hacking attacks left US companies picking up the very expensive pieces and exposed a growing weakness in the government's ability to combat cybercrime, US lawmakers have proposed two bills that will make information sharing between private businesses and government agencies easier. In April, the House

, H.R. 1560 and H.R. 1731, which are likely to be combined when they are reviewed in the Senate. Both bills support information sharing as a way to combat cyber security but in different ways.

H.R. 1560, also called the Protecting Cyber Networks Act (PCNA) encourages voluntary sharing between the private and public sector. This act gives companies the choice of whether or not to share their customer data with the government and each other. It also allows firms to decide which government agency to share it with; for example financial institutions may choose to share with the Treasury. This gives businesses more control over the data they collect and allows for a targeted defense against cyber crime as the information sharing will be concentrated within certain segments.

H.R. 1731, or the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement (NCPA), would create a similar network of information sharing, however the bill only authorizes the transfer of information between private companies and the Department of Homeland Security. This type of information sharing is expected to help the government stay abreast of the latest trends in cybercrime and was to combat them. The bill focuses on cyber crime as a whole rather than the specific threats targeting each sector.

For both bills, liability and privacy have become one of the main concerns for private businesses. The NCPA includes legislation that specifically prohibits the shared data from being used by law enforcement agencies and outlaws surveillance programs based on that data. Liability protection is also provided to companies who share their data under both the PCNA and the NCPA.