Spy agencies and business to share data

The US government will share classified information with the private sector operators of "critical infrastructure" under the terms of a proposed cybersecurity bill in Congress that has bipartisan support.

The bill was unveiled by Sens Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) amid heightened concern in Washington that the US is ill equipped to deal with the growing threat of cybercrime and state-sponsored "intrusions" into US government and communications networks. If passed, the legislation would enhance collaboration between US intelligence agencies and the private sector. First, it would require the White House to designate certain technology systems as critical if their disruption threatened strategic national interests. If intelligence officials received information about a forthcoming attack targeting a specific company or critical part of the US infrastructure, a top-level private sector official with security clearance would be provided with "enough" information to defend or mitigate the attack.