October 27, 2015

Wyden on CISA Passage: ‘The Fight to Secure Americans’ Private, Personal Data Has Just Begun’

Washington, D.C. –Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., issued the following statement on the passage of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act this afternoon.

“The fight to secure Americans’ private, personal data has just begun.  Today’s vote is simply an early, flawed step in what is sure to be a long debate over how the U.S. can best defend itself against cyber threats.  As even the sponsors have acknowledged, this bill will do little to protect Americans from sophisticated hacks.  At the same time, it will allow large volumes of Americans’ personal data to be unnecessarily shared with government agencies from the NSA to the FBI,” Wyden said.

“As today’s votes showed, a significant portion of the Senate believes more must be done to filter out Americans’ personal information before data is handed over to the government.  As this legislation proceeds, I’ll continue to work with my colleagues to secure better protections for individuals’ personal information.

“Strengthening privacy goes hand-in-hand with better cybersecurity. Sharing more personal information with the government heightens the risk that hackers will poach data from an insecure federal database, and adds background noise from information unrelated to cyber threats.  Large numbers of Americans joined leading U.S. tech companies to speak out against this bill, because they know that the U.S. needs real solutions to cyberattacks, and not feel-good legislation that is not up to the task of thwarting digital criminals and foreign hackers.  Because of their efforts, a few of this bill’s worst flaws have been removed, and I encourage them to keep making their voices heard so that more of its flaws will be addressed.”

Wyden has led the growing Senate opposition to the flawed bill, garnering 41 votes for his amendment to strengthen privacy protections after he was the only member of the Senate Intelligence Committee to vote against the bill earlier this year.

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