As the cyber security battle continues the IRS warns no warrant needed for email.

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) passed through the U.S. House Intelligence Committee by a vote of 18-2 on Wednesday evening. The bill now goes to the full House for a vote as early as next week. The controversial measure was reintroduced in February after stalling in the Senate in 2012. Last year President Obama issued a threat of presidential veto while activists protested nationwide.

The vote comes after a closed door meeting that was criticized by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). Jeramie Scott, national security fellow at EPIC said “Public accountability is paramount with cybersecurity. The House Intelligence Committee is trying to avoid public scrutiny. EPIC would like to see the process opened up to the public, robust privacy protections added, and Presidential Decision Directives on cybersecurity released to the public.”

EPiC are not alone in their opposition to the bill. The the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and companies such as Facebook and Reddit have spoken out about fears of giving government too much access to individuals private information. There is also the worry of supplying the National Security Agency with an even larger pool of names to spy on.

The Hill reported:

“The bill leaves it up to companies to decide which government entity they want to share cyber threat data with, although the NSA is among the list of agencies that the measure allows them to relay information to. CISPA would also enable companies to receive valuable government intelligence about cyber threats and grant them liability protection from legal action if they share threat data with the government.”

While opponents are concerned over privacy invasion supporters of the bill believe it is necessary to protect American businesses from having trade secrets hacked away, as well as protecting critical infrastructure. House Intelligence Committee ranking member Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) warned, “”We feel we have to move now. We don’t want another 9/11.”

Of course using 9/11 as a political tool is nothing to new it has begun to be a regular occurrence in reference to looming cyber attacks. In early February former NSA director, John, “Mike” McConnell, who served as director of the National Security Agency under President Clinton and then as director of national intelligence under George W. Bush and President Obama, was quoted as saying, “”We have had our 9/11 warning. Are we going to wait for the cyber equivalent of the collapse of the World Trade Centers?”

more here: http://intellihub.com/2013/04/11/cispa-cyber-security-bill-moves-forward-irs-says-no-warrant-needed-for-email-access/