Original Article By Cesar Garcia

Sources from CNET, ZDnet, etc.

For the past couple years the United States has been attempting to pass the CISPA bill which will authorize sharing of Internet traffic information between the U.S. government and certain technology and manufacturing companies such as; Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and Myspace. Some individuals saw CISPA as a second attempt at strengthening digital piracy laws after the Stop Online Piracy Act met huge opposition. CISPA will hit the floor either Today or Tomorrow, this bill has been so controversial yet no one understands why? Many Others are unaware of what's going on, So lets break it down:

1. For those out of touch with current events concerning this, CISPA will allow private sector firms to search personal and sensitive user data of ordinary U.S. residents to identify so-called "threat information". Once identified this information will be shared other firms and the US government — without the need for a court-ordered warrant.

CISPA is controversial because it overrules all existing federal and state laws by saying: "Notwithstanding any other provision 

of law," companies may share information "with any other entity, including the federal government." It would not, however, require them to do so.

That language has alarmed dozens of advocacy groups, including the American Library Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Reporters Without Borders. In turn they sent a letter (PDF Provided below) to Congress last month opposing CISPA. It says: "CISPA's information sharing regime allows the transfer of vast amounts of data, including sensitive information like Internet records or the content of e-mails, to any agency in the government."

1. Under a new amendment voted on earlier today in the U.S. House, U.S. companies would have been able to keep their privacy policies intact and their promises valid, including terms of service, legally enforceable in the future. 

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), who chairs the House Rules Committee, urged his colleagues to reject the amendment and in turn his colleagues did. All Republican members of the committee voted against the amendment despite a unanimous show of support from the Democratic membership.

Yet Republicans failed to get the amendment through by a 5-8 vote. This amendment would have weakened CISPA's position. Now it allows these private firms watertight legal immunity under CISPA to share their customer and user data with other firms as well as the U.S. government, by being "completely exonerated from any risk of liability," according to Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO). Now private sector firms have the right to hand over private user data, while circumventing existing privacy laws. Data such as; emails, text messages, cloud-stored documents and files, with the U.S. government, its law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

"We're disappointed that such a commonsense reform won't even get a vote, When Americans sign up for service with their phone company or their Internet provider they should be entitled to the privacy protections that the companies promise them. Giving companies legal cover to break their contracts with consumers is bad policy and a disservice to the American people." Will Adams, a spokesman for Rep. Justin Amash, a Michigan Republican who co-sponsored the amendment, told CNET earlier this evening. 

What this infection does:

Security Shield is a rogue spyware infection that is a variant of Security Tool. This rogue is installed through; other malware, fake online programs claiming that they are anti-malware scanners or prompt that your system is infected. Once installed, on your system Security Shield will be configured to start automatically when Windows starts. Once started, it will perform a scan of your computer and state that there are numerous infections present on your computer. If you attempt, though, to remove any of these so-called infections the program will state that you first need to purchase it. In reality, all of the files it states are infections are legitimate Windows files. Therefore, do not manually delete any of the files it states are infections as you may cause Windows to not operate correctly. The following images will have indicators pointing out how far the creators of this virus went to make it seem real.

 In order to protect itself, Security Shield will terminate almost all processes that you start. It does this so that you cannot launch any security programs that may have the ability to remove the infection. The message that you will see when you attempt run a program is similar to the one below:

Security Shield "cmd.exe" is infected with "Worm.Win32.Autorun.bnb". Do you want to register your copy and remove all threats now?

Just like the scan results, this infection warning is fake and should be ignored.

Security Inspector 2010 is a rogue anti-spyware program that is installed via malware without your permission or knowledge. So be careful people because once it is installed it will be configured to start whenever you login to Windows.  With your Startup Infected this virus could cause multiple issues with your operating system if not treated immediately. When the Virus starts it will scan your system, prompted that the scan is finished it will state that your computer has numerous amount of virus/malware infections. It will not, though, allow you to remove any of these so-called infections until you first purchase the program. As the detected infections are all fake, you should not purchase the program.  Security Inspector 2010 is constantly running and it will also display numerous nag screens and alerts that are designed to make you think your system has a major security issue. These alerts will be shown quite often and will require you to navigate with full attention and all other programs inaccessible through numerous screens before finally closing. Examples of some of the fake security alerts you will encounter while Antivirus Studio is running are:

Warning!

Your computer is being used as spamming machine. You can get sued for spam.

Your computer WILL BE DISCONNECTED FORM INTERNET BECAUSE SPAMMING OTHER PCs

Antivirus Studio Agent

The antivirus database has become outdated and should be updated now. Click on this message to receive the latest antivirus updates.

Program <insert filename here> is infected with virus Generic Dropper.js. Continue running this program may be dangerous to your system and personal data. Running this program can lead to permanent data loss and program instability. Would you like to disinfect this program with antivirus?

A new infection is making its rounds that makes it so you cannot boot your computer unless you pay a ransom of $100 USD. This malware will modify the Master Boot Record of your computer so that it displays a message stating that your computer's hard drives were encrypted and that unless you pay the ransom you will not be able to access your files.

The reality is that the infected hard drives are not actually encrypted, but just not being made available until you enter a password. When this infection is installed on your computer it will move the infected hard drives Master Boot Record, or MBR, to another location and install a new MBR that displays a message stating that the hard drives were encrypted and that you need to visit www.safe-data.ru in order to receive help. (An MBR is a Master Boot Record which in laymen terms is a file dictates how the Operating System boots)  The message that you will see is:

Your PC is blocked.

All the hard drives were encrypted.

Browse www.safe-data.ru to get an access to your system and files.