If you think the internet is chaotic now, wait until Congress lets the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 (CISA 2015) expire. Imagine a lawless digital frontier where cybercriminals and state-sponsored hackers saddle up, load their ransomware six-shooters, and ride off with corporate secrets, intellectual property, and your grandmother’s Social Security number. That’s the world we’re flirting with if CISA goes the way of the dodo.
The premise behind CISA 2015 was simple and elegant: information sharing between the government and private industry would make everyone safer. Threat data, indicators of compromise, and attack vectors—companies could share these with DHS and receive actionable intelligence in return. It was supposed to be a two-way street, a public-private cyber neighborhood watch. Without it, we’re back to corporate silos, where each breach is a dirty little secret, and attackers can recycle the same playbook against victims who don’t know better.
Here’s the hard truth: without a government-mandated mechanism, many corporations—especially publicly traded ones—will go radio silent after an attack. Why? Disclosure can lead to reputational damage, tanking stock prices, lawsuits, and uncomfortable shareholder questions.
The SEC has attempted to play the tough cop, pushing for timely disclosures of cyber incidents. But in practice, companies still drag their feet, hoping to plug holes before anyone notices. The expiration of CISA 2015 removes a structured framework for sharing critical breach intelligence, which means companies will have even less incentive to come clean. And if no one’s talking, everyone’s vulnerable.
Picture this: A Fortune 500 firm suffers a ransomware hit, but instead of waving a red flag, it whispers about “system upgrades” in its quarterly report. Meanwhile, the same attack vector quietly infiltrates supply chains, targeting small and mid-sized firms that lack the resources to mitigate the damage. The hackers? They’re laughing all the way to the Bitcoin wallet.
The Securities and Exchange Commission already struggles to enforce its rules around breach disclosure. CISA’s expiration makes it worse. Without information-sharing mandates, regulators lose valuable threat intelligence they rely on to craft guidance and hold companies accountable.
That means corporations could start gaming the system: hide a breach long enough to contain the financial fallout, hope the government never finds out, and quietly settle with whoever got burned. Meanwhile, investors and consumers are left in the dark, and the larger economy inherits the risk.
Compliance becomes a facade—checklists and jargon designed to appear effective on paper, while actual security practices fall short. And don’t expect Wall Street to sound the alarm; as long as the stock keeps climbing, who cares if hackers are lurking behind the ticker tape?
Let’s not forget the opportunistic parasites who thrive in regulatory vacuums. With no unified framework for reporting and sharing threats, the internet gets flooded with scams and “solutions” promising salvation. Consider the rise of malware campaigns that claim to have access to your search requests, webcam footage, or fake antivirus schemes, which prey on panic rather than providing actual protection. And then there are serious vulnerabilities, such as Microsoft CVE errors, that could be weaponized overnight if nobody raises a flag in time.
CISA’s expiration makes the job of the good guys harder and the job of the bad guys easier. Without shared threat intelligence, these scams linger longer, spread wider, and trick more victims—because the alarm bells either aren’t being rung or are only ringing in isolated corners.
You can bet Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran are watching this legislative clown show with popcorn in hand. Information sharing laws don’t stop state-sponsored hackers, but they slow them down by forcing companies and government agencies to cooperate. Take away that cooperation, and it’s open season.
If you want to know what a post-CISA 2015 world looks like, imagine Wall Street without the SEC, or highways without traffic lights. Some companies will still follow best practices, but many won’t—because the incentives tend to favor secrecy. The result? A fragmented landscape where cybercriminals move faster than regulators, companies hoard intelligence to protect their stock price, and ordinary citizens and small businesses bear the brunt of escalating attacks.
And here’s the cruel irony: while Fortune 500 firms may absorb the financial hit from a breach, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often cannot. Without the safety net of information sharing, SMEs become the canaries in the digital coal mine—hit first, hit hardest, and often forced to shutter entirely after a successful attack.
But let’s be clear: even if Congress renews CISA 2015 tomorrow, the government is not your knight in digital armor. Federal agencies move slowly, and hackers don’t wait for legislative calendars to pass. The expiration of CISA underscores a larger truth: companies, especially smaller entities, must take ownership of their own cybersecurity posture and endpoint protection.
That means embracing zero-trust architecture—a security model that assumes every device, user, and connection is potentially compromised until proven otherwise. No more blind trust in the corporate network. No more open doors for insider threats. Zero trust requires continuous verification, segmentation, and rigorous access controls. It’s not perfect, but it beats leaving the front gate wide open.
The expiration of CISA 2015 is not just a policy debate—it’s a red flashing warning sign. Without mandated information sharing, we risk drifting into a cyber Wild West where hackers write the rules, corporations hide the bodies, and ordinary businesses and consumers are left defenseless.
Yes, Congress should renew CISA. Yes, reforms are necessary to strike a balance between corporate transparency and operational security. But ultimately, no law can replace the responsibility businesses must take for their own survival. The government can help, but it cannot save you.
So buckle up, because in the digital Wild West, there are only two kinds of businesses: those that invest in robust cybersecurity—including zero-trust architecture—and those waiting for the next ambush. And in cyberspace, there’s no cavalry coming over the hill.
Julio Rivera is a business and political strategist, cybersecurity researcher, founder of ItFunk.Org, and a political commentator and columnist. His writing, which is focused on cybersecurity and politics, is regularly published by many of the largest news organizations in the world.
