Posted on 06/26/2010 10:03:14 AM PDT by EternalVigilance
A US Senate committee has approved a wide-ranging cybersecurity bill that some critics have suggested would give the US president the authority to shut down parts of the Internet during a cyberattack.
Senator Joe Lieberman and other bill sponsors have refuted the charges that the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act gives the president an Internet "kill switch." Instead, the bill puts limits on the powers the president already has to cause "the closing of any facility or stations for wire communication" in a time of war, as described in the Communications Act of 1934, they said in a breakdown of the bill published on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee website.
The committee unanimously approved an amended version of the legislation by voice vote Thursday, a committee spokeswoman said. The bill next moves to the Senate floor for a vote, which has not yet been scheduled.
Obama security review gets mixed reception
The bill, introduced earlier this month, would establish a White House Office for Cyberspace Policy and a National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications, which would work with private US companies to create cybersecurity requirements for the electrical grid, telecommunications networks and other critical infrastructure.
The bill also would allow the US president to take emergency actions to protect critical parts of the Internet, including ordering owners of critical infrastructure to implement emergency response plans, during a cyber-emergency. The president would need congressional approval to extend a national cyber-emergency beyond 120 days under an amendment to the legislation approved by the committee.
The legislation would give the US Department of Homeland Security authority that it does not now have to respond to cyber-attacks, Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, said earlier this month.
"Our responsibility for cyber defence goes well beyond the public sector because so much of cyberspace is owned and operated by the private sector," he said. "The Department of Homeland Security has actually shown that vulnerabilities in key private sector networks like utilities and communications could bring our economy down for a period of time if attacked or commandeered by a foreign power or cyber terrorists."
Other sponsors of the bill are Senators Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, and Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat.
One critic said Thursday that the bill will hurt the nation's security, not help it. Security products operate in a competitive market that works best without heavy government intervention, said Wayne Crews, vice president for policy and director of technology studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an anti-regulation think tank.
"Policymakers should reject such proposals to centralize cyber security risk management," Crews said in an e-mail. "The Internet that will evolve if government can resort to a 'kill switch' will be vastly different from, and inferior to, the safer one that will emerge otherwise."
Cybersecurity technologies and services thrive on competition, he added. "The unmistakable tenor of the cybersecurity discussion today is that of government steering while the market rows," he said. "To be sure, law enforcement has a crucial role in punishing intrusions on private networks and infrastructure. But government must coexist with, rather than crowd out, private sector security technologies."
On Wednesday, 24 privacy and civil liberties groups sent a letter raising concerns about the legislation to the sponsors. The bill gives the new National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications "significant authority" over critical infrastructure, but doesn't define what critical infrastructure is covered, the letter said.
Without a definition of critical infrastructure there are concerns that "it includes elements of the Internet that Americans rely on every day to engage in free speech and to access information," said the letter, signed by the Center for Democracy and Technology, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other groups.
"Changes are needed to ensure that cybersecurity measures do not unnecessarily infringe on free speech, privacy, and other civil liberties interests," the letter added.
Programs are crafty enough that if the internet gets a “kill” switch, or otherwise regulated for content, that hopefully they would create an unregulated alternative. A second “internet,” if you will.
Soon.... very soon, probably January. :)
Thanks. Its been a while since I seen that episode. Remincent of 1984 and Brave New World among others.
How is this going to work exactly? Is that magnitude of control concentrated in one location???
Has he heard of telephone dial-up to a foreign ISP? I could use my brother’s ISP in UK, couldn’t I?
Just imagine the media if this were G.W. Bush and Karl Rove doing this stuff!
Tick...Tock...
Where have you been against Obama but hiding under you beds. You have done nothing, nothing but complain and whine… doing nothing.
How dare you criticize what we stateside Americans are doing to fight Obama, while you sit comfortably in another country?
If you loved this country, you'd be here in our greatest hour of need, but where are you? Hiding out in some foreign country like a coward.
We deserve that rant.
Funny you should mention this. In cleaning out my garage this weekend, I “found” all my old ham radio equipment. I considered tossing it, but now I will go through it again and make sure it’s all in working order. It may come in quite handy, considering the way things are going...
No, we don’t.
So, Conservatives, where is your GOP?
Why aren’t they working feverishly to increase awareness about this and many other issues the communists are shoving down your throats?
Where is the press conference?
Where are the appearances on the major talk shows?
WHERE IS YOUR GOP?
If they aren’t in on this destruction, then exactly WHAT are they doing to resist?
Nothing, nada, zilch, zero, nunca...
They are MIA, AWOL, DESERTERS, TRAITORS, DERELICTS, BETRAYERS, etc.
Your GOP has been compromised. They are useless.
But, by all means, learn this for yourselves. Run to the polls in November, and vote-in X number of “Republicans” and then monitor their performance.
You will see that you would have done about as well voting for the “Democrat” candidates.
Correct.
Obama is a Communist and the greatest traitor in American history since Benedict Arnold.
He will pull the switch on the Internet when the almost inevitable civil war breaks out.
The list, ping
Good.
As a U.S. citizen I do not live in the U.S., but was out in the streets against Noriega. Now it is your turn. But it will never happen because you are a bunch of chickens.
Where have you been against Obama but hiding under you beds. You have done nothing, nothing but complain and whine… doing nothing.
Do you think the blue helmets are going to save your asses?
Thank you for giving my country away because of your lack of spine but are talented in whining.
I would really like to say “go to hell” to all of you spineless creeps, but Obama is doing it for me.
I wonder exactly the same thing - When will the civil war break out? Obama & Company are clearly traitors and it is the SACRED DUTY of American Patriots to launch a rebellion... A rebel army should have formed already and marched on Washington, D.C. burn out tyranny - yet we sit idle while with every passing day, the chains of slavery are being manufactured by our Imperial Federal Government.
I would take up arms myself except for the fact that an Army of One wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans. If rebellion is to have a chance, I must one of millions.
So I sit behind my computer, running search after search looking for something other than talk, talk, TALK about revolution. I wonder if it were like this in Russia, Cuba and China before liberty was finally destroyed?
Therefore, with every passing day we Patriots grow weaker and the enemy grows stronger. What are the Patriots worried about? I’ll answer that: Losing their lives, homes, jobs and families. Do they not understand that everything they hold dear including the Republic is being slowly, but surely
being destroyed daily by the tyrants in Washington D.C. ?
Where have you been against Obama but hiding under you beds. You have done nothing, nothing but complain and whine… doing nothing.
Done nothing? The Tea Parties have been peaceful....so far.
So, Conservatives, where is your GOP?
Why aren’t they working feverishly to increase awareness about this and many other issues the communists are shoving down your throats?
Where is the press conference?
Where are the appearances on the major talk shows?
WHERE IS YOUR GOP?
If they aren’t in on this destruction, then exactly WHAT are they doing to resist?
Nothing, nada, zilch, zero, nunca...
They are MIA, AWOL, DESERTERS, TRAITORS, DERELICTS, BETRAYERS, etc.
Your GOP has been compromised. They are useless.
But, by all means, learn this for yourselves. Run to the polls in November, and vote-in X number of “Republicans” and then monitor their performance.
You will see that you would have done about as well voting for the “Democrat” candidates.
Indeed!
Those who think a GOP victory in November will stop Obama & his Communist pals are in for a rude awakening - Like the Russian Assembly that met several months after the Bolshevik coup in early 1918, it will be at first ignored and then dissolved.
Our only recourse at this point is force of arms. Our American Bolsheviks can only be blown out of office at this point. They will not go quietly into the night.
Only two options folks: Victory or Death!
So, Conservatives, where is your GOP?
Why aren’t they working feverishly to increase awareness about this and many other issues the communists are shoving down your throats?
Where is the press conference?
Where are the appearances on the major talk shows?
WHERE IS YOUR GOP?
If they aren’t in on this destruction, then exactly WHAT are they doing to resist?
Nothing, nada, zilch, zero, nunca...
They are MIA, AWOL, DESERTERS, TRAITORS, DERELICTS, BETRAYERS, etc.
Your GOP has been compromised. They are useless.
But, by all means, learn this for yourselves. Run to the polls in November, and vote-in X number of “Republicans” and then monitor their performance.
You will see that you would have done about as well voting for the “Democrat” candidates.
I firmly beleive the leadership in the Congress, Intelligence, Military and Judicial communities have been threatened...and that includes their families.
The “opposition to 0bama” is just for show.
Be carefully what you say...
We may be all hiding out soon...
Either we hang together, or we will hang separately...
If it be treason, make the most of it.
http://ronbosoldier.blogspot.com/2010/06/second-american-revolution-is-cool.html
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