Opinion: Consider cybersecurity before protesting CISPA

Many people care about the general welfare of the American people, and many politicians are used to direct, physical attacks on the United States.  However, in the age of new and advanced technology, politicians also need to look out for cyber attacks.  This has been put off for a few years; it is now finally being addressed in Congress with the Cyber Intelligence and Sharing Protection Act.This bill passed in the House last year but was killed in the Senate.  This issue was not addressed after that initial proposal.  Now, Congress has realized that the U.S. is more prone to a cyberattack than a physical attack.  There will be some amendments made to the bill.  One of the changes is that Internet companies can give the government any information that they may view as a possible security threat.  Other changes that would be made would be a more definite and narrow definition of what a threat is as well as what national security is.  There is one problem that the American people want to be addressed immediately: the ability for the National Security Agency to access any information transferred from the Internet companies to the government.  People say that this will violate the right to privacy and other civil liberties.  Until this issue is addressed, these protesters will not be silent.What these protesters do not realize is how important and necessary this bill is.  A cyber attack on this nation would be 10 times more harmful than a physical attack.  The amount of people that rely on their smartphones, laptops and other Internet devices is enormous.  If an enemy of the U.S. was able to access the grid, more than half of the American population would suffer.  The thought of not being connected to the Internet scares many people.The reliance that the government has on the Internet is also quite large.  If an enemy was able to access the grid, they would be able to break through all the firewalls and security fixes that the government has in place.  From there, they would be able to access all top secret and confidential information that is stored in government databases.A cyberattack can happen without warning.  It is completely necessary to address this national security issue as soon as possible.  Amendments to the bill can be made at a later time.  For right now, get this bill passed so the government has a knowledge base of what to do if a cyberattack happens in the not-so-distant future.