<![CDATA[Our Cyberwar With China]]>A recent National Intelligence Estimate determined that the US is “the target of a massive, sustained cyber-espionage campaign that is threatening the country’s economic competitiveness,” pointing to China as the country “most aggressively seeking to penetrate the computer systems of American businesses and institutions.” Just before his SOTU speech, Obama signed an executive order on cyber-security. Andy Greenberg examines its privacy implications and sees progress:

[T]he House of Representatives may have hoped the President’s own cybersecurity initiative would divert some of the attention away from the controversial legislation known as CISPA [Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act]. Instead, the White House’s long-awaited executive order on cybersecurity is actually scoring points with the privacy advocates–and putting CISPA in a worse light than ever. … [W]hile the order allows the sharing of government data with the private sector, the data sharing doesn’t flow back the other way. That means the order, unlike CISPA, doesn’t raise the hackles of privacy groups that have protested that CISPA could grant immunity to private sector firms who want to share their user’s personal information with the government.

The ACLU “welcomed Obama’s order.” Less than 24 hours after the president signed it, the House reintroduced the controversial CISPA with no changes.

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