An Open Letter to the President about CISA

DownsizeDC.org President Jim Babka sent this letter to Barack Obama about cybersecurity:

Dear Mr. President,

If the Cyber Information Sharing Act (CISA) comes to your desk, I urge you to veto it.

You already know why…

Your April 15, 2012 Statement of Administration Principles, said that a cybersecurity law must preserve “Americans’ privacy, data confidentiality, and civil liberties and recognizes the civilian nature of cyberspace.”

CISA fails on all counts…

PRIVACY: CISA flouts current privacy law. It allows companies to monitor our Internet activities.

DATA CONFIDENTIALITY: If a cybersecurity threat arises, there are inadequate safeguards to prevent irrelevant personal data from being shared.

CIVIL LIBERTIES: Law enforcement is permitted to use this personal data to investigate non-cyber crimes.

CIVILIAN CYBERSPACE: If any government agency accesses my personal information, the NSA gets it too. The NSA is a military, NOT a civilian agency.

There you have it Mr. President. CISA fails by your own standards.

I’m against CISA for other reasons as well…

• I don’t trust the federal government to keep my data private when it can’t even keep its own personnel files safe.
• Companies should be liable for mishandling my personal information.
• Decentralized, innovative, free-market cybersecurity measures would be far more effective than federal control.

But right now, Mr. President, you have all you need to veto CISA. Tell Congress you will do so.

Sincerely,

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

You can send your own letter to the White House here. Jim used the “Homeland Security” subject line, and pasted his entire letter in the tiny box provided.