Obama Proposes Safe Harbors for Cybersecurity Information-Sharing

Politico's David Perera reports on a cybersecurity proposal that President Barack Obama put forth today. One key part, pushed for a long time, would provide limited safe harbors to firms that share cybersecurity information with the government: "A central portion of the White House’s plan would grant targeted liability protection to companies that share cyberthreat information with the government — removing what critics say is a major stumbling block to private-sector partnership with federal authorities on cyber issues." The Department of Homeland Security, in turn, would share cyberthreat data with other federal agencies and with private-sector information-sharing organizations.

There are privacy safeguards as part of the plan. Firms would be required to take steps to remove personally identifiable information unrelated to cyberthreats when sharing that information.