Four cybersecurity bills are scheduled for a vote in the House of Representatives this week — dubbed "cyber week" by some lawmakers who believe that digital security should be among Congress' top priorities.

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, better known as CISPA, is the most well-known of the group. CISPA's designed to allow private companies to share cyber-threat information with one another and with the Federal government.

Advocates call CISPA a necessary step in shoring up U.S. defenses against what some experts fear: a digital Pearl Harbor.

"Without important, immediate changes to American cybersecurity policy, I believe our country will continue to be at risk for a catastrophic attack to our nation’s vital networks - networks that power our homes, provide our clean water or maintain the other critical services we use every day," said House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger.

However, civil rights groups claim such sharing would strip Internet users of their online privacy.

"CISPA would allow ISPs, social networking sites, and anyone else handling Internet communications to monitor users and pass information to the government without any judicial oversight," said Electronic Frontier Foundation Activism Director Rainey Reitman in a statement.

"The language of this bill is dangerously vague, so that personal online activity –- from the mundane to the intimate -– could be implicated."

Some conservative lawmakers, such as Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), fear the bill augurs a dangerous entanglement of government and business.

"CISPA represents an alarming form of corporatism as it further intertwines government with companies like Google and Facebook," said Rep. Paul in an audio address.

CISPA is expected to be called up for a vote in the House as early as Monday. The bill has undergone several changes over the past few weeks as the bill's authors attempt to respond to its critics. All of those changes have been posted on the House Intelligence Committee's website.

SEE ALSO: New CISPA Draft Narrows Cybersecurity Language as Protests Loom

The other three bills filling up cyber week in Congress are Rep. Darrell Issa's DATA Act, Rep. Michael McCaul's (R-Texas) Cybersecurity Enhancement Act and a computer technology research and development bill from Rep. Ralph Hall (R-Texas).

Rep. Issa's DATA Act would alter the Federal Information Security Management Act, or FISMA, to create more security oversight on computer systems used by the federal government.

"This bill is the result of a bipartisan collaborative effort with public and private sector partners to solve our nation's information security crisis," said Issa in a statement.

"Congress understands that some of our country's greatest security threats come from cyber attacks. FISMA had become a compliance activity, even at times when compliance appeared to supersede security."

The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act is intended to better focus the federal government's research efforts into cybersecurity. Its author, Rep. McCaul, is the co-chair of the House Cybersecurity Conference.

Absent from cyber week is Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.)'s PRECISE Act, which would require private firms considered vital to national security — such as power plants or electrical grids — to meet government-set cybersecurity standards.

The idea has met opposition from many Congressional Republicans, who are loathe to introduce new regulations on private businesses. Still, it may come up for a vote in future weeks.

What do you think Congress should do, if anything, to improve our security? Let us know in the comments below.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, PashaIgnatov