Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02) today released the following statement on her vote against the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). The bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday by a vote of 288-127.
"Cyber-attacks have become a leading threat against the U.S. These attacks threaten our country's infrastructure, intellectual property, industry, and even personal bank accounts. These threats are serious, and legislation must be passed to provide the mechanism to address this quickly evolving threat. Public-private cooperation and information-sharing is crucial to close the vulnerabilities that currently exist and prevent a potentially devastating attack; but it must be done in a way that does not sacrifice the privacy rights of our own citizens.
"This legislation was a first step toward improved cyber-defense. However, I could not, in good conscience, vote for the CISPA measure in its' current form, due to my serious concerns about its lack of privacy protections.
"The legislation did not require the private sector to remove or even minimize irrelevant personal information from the data it shares with our government or other businesses. Removing personally identifiable information must occur before it is shared with other stakeholders in the private or public sectors.
"This is an issue that is big enough and serious enough to require public-private partnerships to find a solution that reaches a commonsense compromise that improves our ability to defend, prevent, and combat against cyber attacks, and does so in a way that protects the privacy rights of our own citizens."