Despite AP story detailing cybersecurity failures at State Department, Clinton has “no comment” on CISA, a flawed cyber bill that Sanders, tech industry leaders oppose
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 19, 2015
Contact: Holmes Wilson, 614-465-6371, press@fightforthefuture.org
This morning, Fight for the Future launched a petition demanding that Hillary Clinton state her position on CISA, a flawed cyber security bill that Clinton competitor Bernie Sanders and tech industry leaders (including Apple, Microsoft, Salesforce, Facebook and Google) have opposed.
The campaign was launched in the wake of an Associated Press report detailing numerous failures in cybersecurity at the State Department during Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State – failures that go beyond the widely-reported use of insecure email addresses. (This report caused the phrase “under hillary” to trend on social media.)
“At a time when CISA is being rejected by other politicians, the public, security experts, and even the industry it’s supposed to protect, Clinton’s continued silence shows she’s in the wrong place on cybersecurity,” said Fight for the Future Co-director Tiffiniy Cheng, “If Clinton wants to reclaim her credibility on this issue, she needs to take a stand against CISA.”
Both Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul have already come out opposing CISA. Sanders announced his opposition last week.
“Internet users are outraged that Congress is even considering legislation that undermines the basic security of the Internet by sweeping away privacy protections and letting companies off the hook when they improperly share or leak our personal information,” said Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future, “The safety of Internet users’ personal information is more fragile than ever; any candidate for president needs to take this seriously, and line up with the leading voices in tech to oppose the bill.”
Last week, the trade association CCIA announced its opposition to the bill. CCIA represents a wide range of large technology companies including: Amazon, British Telecom, Cloudflare, Dish, eBay, Facebook, Foursquare, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Pandora, Paypal, Samsung, Sprint, and Yahoo.
Last month, the Business Software Alliance, which represents Apple, Adobe, Microsoft, Salesforce, and others, clarified that it did not support CISA after Fight for the Future launched a campaign calling attention to the fact that several companies had (apparently mistakenly) signed a letter that appeared to support CISA-like legislation.
The YouBetrayedUs.org campaign sparked a major backlash from customers and Internet users, generating thousands of emails to the companies involved, and online calls for a boycott, which quickly lead to Salesforce’s CEO taking to twitter to say that his company does not support the bill and the original BSA letter was “a mistake.”
Technology companies and members of Congress are under increasing pressure to oppose CISA, which has now been delayed multiple times in the Senate after grassroots uprisings. Fight for the Future and other groups are planning to escalate their efforts targeting members of Congress, presidential candidates and technology companies that remain silent or support CISA, and will be ready if the bill comes before the Senate in the coming weeks.
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