President Barack Obama followed up Monday’s speech about data breach notification with another speech Tuesday encouraging companies to share information about cyberattacks.
In an address to the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) he proposed legislation that offers liability protection to companies that share information.
Previously, such legislation had stalled due to privacy concerns, but the current proposal requires companies to remove “unnecessary personal information” before sharing.
The proposed legislation also contains provisions that would allow for the prosecution of the sale of botnets, would criminalize the overseas sale of stolen personal financial information, and would give courts the authority to shut down criminal botnets.
“We want to be able to better prosecute those who are involved in cyber attacks, those who are involved in the sale of cyber weapons like botnets and spyware,” he said. “We want to ensure that we’re able to prosecute insiders who steal corporate secrets or individuals’ private information.”
Privacy groups met this latest proposal with a great deal of skepticism.