CISPA author: Snowden 'hurt our chances' for cyber bill

The debate around cybersecurity has gotten dragged down by misinformed concerns about government surveillance, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) said during a US Chamber of Commerce event.

Chairman Rogers, along with his committee’s ranking member, Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), sponsored the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) which would make it easier for companies to share cyberthreat information with each other and the government. CISPA passed the House earlier in 2013, and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is working on a Senate counterpart. Progress on these bills to allow information sharing has been somewhat derailed by Edward Snowden’s series of leaks regarding US national security surveillance programs, Chairman Rogers said.