A provision attached to a sizable federal funding bill that was unveiled in Congress on Wednesday will provide further protection against consumer lawsuits for businesses that share data with the U.S. government for cyber security purposes.The cyber-security proposal, which has the backing of the business community, represents the first significant policy reaction from Congress to hacking attacks similar to the ones that have affected multiple government agencies, Target, Home Depot, JPMorgan Chase, and Sony Pictures.Congress has been unable to pass information-sharing laws for years because privacy groups fear that the National Security Agency, the government’s electronic spying arm, will be able to monitor more Americans by providing it with more data.
