Dive Brief:

• The U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday approved 307 to 116 a bi-partisan measure to protect retailers and other companies from liabilities in order to smooth cyber-security investigations and prevention. The bill is similar to one that easily passed the Senate in March. 

• In addition to protections aimed at fostering cooperation among companies and federal agencies to solve breaches and develop anti-fraud measures, the bill supersedes some state laws that many retailers found confusing and contradictory.

• Privacy advocates lobbied against the measure in both houses, but recent high-profile data breaches at retailers and at Sony Pictures persuaded many lawmakers in the end to support it.

Dive Insight:

U.S. lawmakers attempted to assuage the fears of privacy advocates by making any information-sharing with the government voluntary and keeping the NSA and the Defense Department out of it.

That hasn’t mattered much to those with privacy concerns, but those provisions probably gave cover for lawmakers to pass these bills. The law will foster information-sharing among retailers and law enforcement officials so that retailers and other companies can improve their cyber attack prevention. In recent years, retailers have mostly been in reaction mode.

In a setback for cybersecurity, however, a House committee is also considering cuts to human-behavior research funding, an area considered important to the cybersecurity field.