Governor Snyder approved legislation on Tuesday to exclude cybersecurity information shared with government bodies from Freedom of Information Act Requests.
Supporters of the new public act say it will incentivize businesses to share information about hacks with law enforcement.
Republican Representative Brandt Iden introduced the legislation. He said in the past companies haven’t shared sensitive information on cybersecurity hacks for fear that it could end up getting FOIA-ed.
“There are certain kinds of hacks out there that are going on and we want to be able to prevent them and we need information to be able to do that. What we don’t want to do is compromise any company that would have proprietary information that could be shared.”
Brandt says the new act will protect companies who share information from FOIA requests.
“The companies and the state want to work together in advance of these cyber hacks and we need a bill which protects us. That’s exactly what this legislation does.”
Representatives from the Michigan Press Association said they are concerned that the act will have unintended consequences and shield state departments from FOIA requests.
Iden said the bill is specifically focused on protecting the information of private businesses.