A top Senate Democrat introduced legislation Thursday to extend and rename an expired information-sharing law, and make it retroactive to cover the lapse that began Oct. 1.Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, introduced the Protecting America from Cyber Threats (PACT) Act, to replace the expired Cybersecurity and Information Sharing Act of 2015 (CISA 2015) that has provided liability protections for organizations that share cyber threat data with each other and the federal government. Industry groups and cyber professionals have called those protections vital, sometimes describing the 2015 law as the most successful cyber legislation ever passed.The 2015 law shares an acronym with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which some Republicans — including the chairman of Peters’ panel, Rand Paul of Kentucky — have accused of engaging in social media censorship. As CISA 2015 has lapsed and Peters has tried to renew it, “some people think that’s a reauthorization of the agency,” Peters told reporters Thursday in explaining the new bill name.“There are some of my Republican colleagues who have concerns about CISA as the agency, and I remind them, this is not about the agency,” he said. “It’s about … cybersecurity protections and the ability to have liability protections and to be able to share information. I’ve often heard the chair conflate the two, and I have to continually remind him.”A House bill also would establish a different name.Paul has objected to Peters’ attempts on the floor to extend CISA 2015. A shorter-term extension of the law was included in the House-passed continuing resolution to keep the government open, but that bill didn’t advance in the Senate, prompting a shutdown.Peters’ latest bill, like earlier legislation he co-sponsored with Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., would extend CISA 2015 for 10 years. He rejected the idea of trying to get a shorter-term extension until a longer-term extension could be passed.“One thing that is very clear from all of the stakeholders is that they need long-term certainty when it comes to these protections, that you can’t operate with just a few-week-patch and then another few-week–patch,” Peters said. “That’s no way to run a business. That’s no way to run a sophisticated cybersecurity operation.”Michael Daniel, leader of the Cyber Threat Alliance made up of cybersecurity companies, told CyberScoop that his organization hasn’t been affected by the lapse yet, but that’s partially because it’s an organization that was set up with the long term in mind, with a formalized structure that included information-sharing requirements for members.The lapse might also not immediately affect other organizations, he said, comparing it to the risks of the government shutdown underway.“An hour-long lapse doesn’t really do very much, but the longer it goes on, the more you have time for organizations to say, ‘Well, maybe we need to reconsider what we’re doing, maybe we need to think about it differently,’” Daniel said. “The longer it goes on, you start having questions about, ‘Maybe this thing won’t get reauthorized down the road.’ And once you start questioning the long-term prospects, that’s when people start making changes in their behavior.”Peters said he’s heard from organizations becoming increasingly nervous about the expiration, but didn’t want to comment on whether any had stopped sharing because that’s “sensitive information, important information, and our adversaries should know as little about what’s happening as possible.”Peters said he wouldn’t comment on his deliberations with Paul, or comment on Paul’s motives for objecting to his floor maneuvers. Paul cancelled a planned markup of his own version of CISA 2015 renewal legislation in September that included language on free-speech guarantees under CISA the agency, with a spokesperson saying Democrats had requested more time and were “not negotiating in good faith.”Peters told reporters that claim was “absolutely false … the problem is not on our end.”The revised Peters legislation doesn’t touch on the topic of free speech. Democrats and Republicans have blamed one another for the government shutdown.“Firstly, this authority will be turned back on when Democrats, including the bill sponsor, vote to reopen the government,” said Gabrielle Lipsky, a spokesperson for Paul. “The Senator has made it clear that a longer-term reauthorization will need robust free speech protections included.”Peters said he had spoken to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., about getting the bill through Senate procedures. He and Rounds have both been speaking with colleagues to gain backing. The Trump administration also has been lobbying senators to support a CISA 2015 reauthorization.“I’m confident that if this bill gets to the floor for a vote, it will not only pass, it will pass overwhelmingly,” he said. “And that’s what we’re working to do.”The post Sen. Peters tries another approach to extend expired cyber threat information-sharing law appeared first on CyberScoop.