Senate outlook for CISPA unclear, potentially very bad

The House passed its Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) last week, a bill that purports to protect the information systems that run the nation's critical infrastructure network, but mostly provides new and legal ways for private companies and the government to violate our privacy. Now it's up to the Senate.

POLITICO is reporting that experts believe that some kind of cybersecurity bill will make it  through Congress this session, but they're not sure what it will contain.

The Senate is expected to consider a sweeping measure this month by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). Unlike the House-passed CISPA measure, Lieberman's bill would mandate new security standards for privately owned critical infrastructure networks. It's the biggest difference between the two bills, and perhaps the biggest stumbling block to getting a measure to President Obama's desk. [...]

That could mean bad news on the privacy front, because attacks on the Fourth Amendment and privacy rights of Americans is pretty much all that the House bill contains. The House won't consider mandated standards for companies running any infrastructure network, calling it "job-killing regulation."

The obvious concern is that, in their zeal to pass what they'll call a national security law in this election year, the Senate will pass a bad bill that the House would agree to. The biggest check on that possibility so far is President Obama, and the veto threat from the White House.

That's not enough. The Senate needs to hear from the grassroots on CISPA, and to stop a bad bill from becoming law.

Contact your Senators and tell them to oppose the House CISPA bill and any version of it that would gut existing privacy laws.