Senate Democrats look to toughen privacy protections in cybersecurity bill

Several Senate Democrats on Thursday announced plans to offer amendments to Sen. Joe Lieberman's (I-Conn.) cybersecurity bill.

Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) both said they planned to offer amendments intended to boost the privacy protections in the bill. 

Still, both senators acknowledged that the revised version of Lieberman's bill included additional safeguards for privacy and civil rights, and called for the Senate to vote to move the legislation forward.

"Now the bill is still not perfect from my point of view, but I can say with confidence that when it comes to protecting both our cybersecurity and our civil liberties, the Cybersecurity Act is the only game in town," Franken said.

A test vote on the bill could come as soon as Thursday, but it is scheduled for Friday.

The Minnesota Democrat had worked with Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and others to incorporate changes to the information sharing provisions in Lieberman's bill, which he called "major, unequivocal victories for privacy and civil liberties." He lauded a measure in the bill that would give companies authority to share information about cyber threats with only civilian agencies, noting that a rival cybersecurity bill backed by Senate Republicans lacked that protection.

Franken said he planned to offer an amendment that would remove measures in Lieberman's bill that would give Internet service providers and other private companies the authority to monitor communications flowing through their information systems for cyber threats and use certain countermeasures to combat them. Franken argued that those provisions are written too broadly and would allow companies to sort through people's emails or damage their computers, all while being immune from legal action.

He said his amendment would put the bill in line with the information-sharing section in the legislative proposal released by the Obama administration last year. Franken added that it already has seven co-sponsors.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said he plans to offer an amendment that would add a five-year sunset provision that would require Congress to consider updating the measures in the cybersecurity bill.

When speaking on the Senate floor, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he would support both amendments and also put forward an amendment that would stiffen the penalties for entities that violate the privacy protections outlined in the bill.

Blumenthal also said he is considering an amendment that would create a chief privacy officer in the Office of Management and Budget. Another measure he would like to see is one that would require federal agencies that have suffered a data breach to notify people who were affected by the intrusion.