For years privacy advocates have been pushing against the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which eliminates all privacy protections on the sharing of private information so long as it is done for “cybersecurity purposes.”

CISPA has failed in the past, but is back again, with Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D – MD), it’s longtime advocate, reintroducing it and citing the hack of Sony Pictures, putatively by North Korea, as justification for new powers.

The NSA is understandably all over this as well, since it will give the companies it works with carte blanche to share data with them without legal ramifications so long as they can play the cybersecurity card.

It is the eagerness for government agencies to get these new powers and access to information that is likely informing their decision to blame North Korea for the Sony hack, as a foreign attack would be a far better sell for granting them new powers than the likely facts, that Sony was attacked by a disgruntled former employee and a handful of other hackers.