US Senators bill push towards information sharing, views of Strixus® executive

LONDON, May 27, 2014 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Senators are pushing the bill towards information sharing that could help prevent cyber attacks, but a recent White House report informs how privacy concerns remain. The report asks Congress to develop a national standard that businesses follow pertaining to notifying customers about security breaches.

Government agencies and the military are already utilising big data to probe new security strategies. But it is raising serious questions, as well, about how to protect privacy and consumer values in a world where data gathered can be used in ways not in line with the original intent of data gathering.

However, the Senate failed to pass a bill in 2012, which aroused lawmakers to introduce bills calling businesses to pay more attention to cyber security following data breaches affecting millions of consumers last year, such as the one at Neiman Marcus.

The new bill from the Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) would enable companies exchange information about cyber attacks and breaches with each other.

"We have worked together for months to draft a bill that allows companies to monitor their computer networks for cyber attacks, promotes sharing of cyber threat information and provides liability protection for companies who share that information," the senators recently announced.

"After reaching agreement on draft legislation, we circulated that draft bill language to relevant parties in the executive branch, private industry and the privacy community for comment. Once those comments are returned, which we hope will happen quickly, we will consider the final legislation."

However, privacy advocates would call for more checks after the emergence of NSA surveillance last year. The bill needs more work as it says any company sharing information with a part of the federal government will go to the Defense Department, which is under the NSA umbrella. The bill requires more clarity over how much information would go to the NSA.

Another issue in the efforts to pass this bill is the differences between sharing consumer information and sharing attack intelligence. James Scott, Chief Federal Strategies Officer for Strixus®, says that the bill push towards information sharing would be viable if companies share discussions related to consumers email and passwords that have been stolen, new malware designed for sophisticated tasks, and the dark areas of the web that often facilitate cyber crime but goes ignored, rather than just sharing face information.

"Massive's Strixus intelligence tool can detect thousands of discussion points from the web and dark web to provide detailed insights into attack sources and chunks of data quietly extracted from breached systems," Scott said while giving his views on the bill.

The measure should aim at establishing a process for businesses and federal government agencies to follow and share cyber threat intelligence.

Media Contact: Daniele Virgillito, Massive, 020 7590 3170, [email protected]

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SOURCE Massive