It seems that CISPA has been put on the shelf for the time being, based on privacy concerns. It is also looking like a new separate bill will thus be drafted in the Senate.

“We’re not taking [CISPA] up,” the committee representative says. “Staff and senators are divvying up the issues and the key provisions everyone agrees would need to be handled if we’re going to strengthen cybersecurity. They’ll be drafting separate bills.”

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., chairman of the committee, said the passage of CISPA was “important,” but said the bill’s “privacy protections are insufficient.”

The controversial bill also known as the Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act passed the House of Representatives a week ago, amidst all the talk and and fallout from the Boston terrorist bombings dominating the national news. Privacy advocates have been raising questions on all this legislation dating back over a year now. At issue was the intrusive nature of information sharing between companies and the government, leading many to believe that this was in direct conflict with a number of constitutional rights. The bill had an unsteady base of company support, which made it all the more worrisome for those same watchdog groups. Whatever bill the Senate puts out, if they do get back to this will take a back seat to other issues for the time being, but it is sure to be back in some form down the road. We’ll be hearing more in the coming days.