How much is it worth to U.S. corporations to be protected from legal liability when sharing cyber-threat information with the government? About $75 million, according to a recent analysis of political donations by MapLight, a non-partisan research group. Add in lobbying monies, and the price goes up by another $605 million, according to a tally by the Sunlight Foundation.
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which passed the House of Representatives Thursday, would allow companies to provide information about customers and clients to third parties, including the U.S. government, so long as it is done for “cybersecurity purposes.” Before the House vote, President Barack Obama had already threatened a veto, citing concerns that companies wouldn’t be held accountable “for failing to safeguard personal information adequately.”
The legislation has generated fierce opposition from privacy advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Supporters of CISPA counter that companies need the flexibility and legal immunity to be able to share threat information freely.
But so far, CISPA supporters have outspent the bill’s detractors “by orders of magnitude,” says MapLight program director Jay Costa.
Days before it passed the House, CISPA attracted 36 new co-sponsors in Congress, up from just two co-sponsors. “New co-sponsors have received 38 times as much money ($7,626,081) from interests supporting CISPA than from interests opposing ($200,362),” according to the MapLight report.
The top donors in support of CISPA by industry include:
- Commercial banks and bank holding companies: $1,024,818
- Pharmaceutical manufacturers: $816,315
- Security brokers and investment companies: $750,077
- Telephone utilities: $587,621
- Electric power utilities: $558,520
The report also finds that interest groups that support CISPA have given 16 times as much money ($67,665,694) to members of the House than have opposing interests ($4,164,596).
Those contributions from top CISPA supporters break down as follows:
- Security brokers and investment companies: $9,054,537
- Commercial banks and bank holding companies: $8,337,964
- Pharmaceutical manufacturers: $6,093,996
- Real estate developers and subdividers: $5,448,263
- Telephone utilities: $4,663,292
