House passes pro-business cybersecurity bill

WASHINGTON -- Legislation aimed at helping companies fend off sophisticated foreign hackers sailed through the House on Thursday by a 288-127 vote despite a White House veto threat and an outcry from privacy advocates and civil liberties groups.

A lack of enthusiasm for the bill in the Senate and the Obama administration objections mean that the legislation is in limbo.

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, is widely backed by industry groups that say businesses are struggling to defend themselves against aggressive and sophisticated attacks from hackers in China, Russia and Eastern Europe.

Hackers have been able to wreak havoc on some key commercial systems. Most recently, several news outlets including The New York Times acknowledged that their systems had been penetrated, while banks are said to be quietly fighting daily intrusions.

The bill, said House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), strikes "that right balance between our privacy, civil liberties and stopping bad guys in their tracks from ruining what is one-sixth of the U.S. economy."

Under the legislation, businesses and the federal government would be able to share technical data without worrying about antitrust or classification laws. It also would grant businesses legal immunity if hacked, so long as they acted in good faith to protect their networks.

But privacy advocates and civil liberties groups say the bill would open up Americans' most private online records to the federal government. The bill doesn't include a requirement that companies scrub data of sensitive information before sharing it with the government.

In its veto threat issued Tuesday, the White House echoed that concern. "Citizens have a right to know that corporations will be held accountable -- and not granted immunity -- for failing to safeguard personal information adequately," it said.