A U.S. Senate Bill proposed in the spring allows for the White House to seize control of public networks in times of a national emergency. Currently this bill is being revised, and is not yet complete. According to CNET, a 55 page draft of the blll S.773 allows the president to seize temporary control of private sector networks during a cybersecurity emergency.
Quoted by CNET, “The new version would allow the president to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks and do what’s necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for “cybersecurity professionals,” and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.”.
It must be noted this bill is not yet complete, and is not up for vote as of yet. Therefore it is not appropriate to say President Obama has the power to shut down the Internet. In the future, this may be an issue, however what is certain is we need to keep on watching this bill.
Many people are citing freedom of speech issues, which is understandable. In theory this bill would only allow the takeover of private networks during a cyber-emergency. The question is, what constitutes to a cyber-emergency? I understand why people are afraid of this, as the government could decide it was a cyber-emergency to stop freedom of speech of a group that threatens a political party.
On the other side, it would also be logical to shut down our networks which were under attack of a foreign power until such measures could be worked out to end the attack. I am not sure how realistic this is, as the government does not control our ISP’s, which are the main networks to be taken over in this bill.
I am not sure how the governemt could enforce such a measure. Is the government going to call every ISP and demand they shut down? What occurs if an ISP refuses? Will the army move in and seize the ISP by force if they do not comply? There are to many questions at this point to give any real answers. I plan to read the entire excerpt, and see what I can understand from it. I suggest everyone else does the same.
For the Excerpt of the Bill, go Here.
Source: Click Here.
Update: I have read the entire bill. It does indeed contain this comment. Look for Section 18, Paragraph 2. Below is an excerpt:
The President –
(2) may declare a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic to and from any compromised Federal Government or United States critical infrastructure information system or network;
(6) may order the disconnection of any Federal Government or United States critical infrastructure information systems or networks in the interest of national security;
The key is critical infrastructure information system or network. There is no further explanation as to what this means, or how this would be completed. I suggest you read the bill to learn more. I found the bill to broad, as it did not specify how anything would be accomplished. I like the idea of improving our cybersecurity, however I feel that we need to look over this bill and improve it. It feels like a very early rough draft. I encourage all to read, then write their represenitives about this bill.
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I think that some public networks should be seized without any emergency – just to shut them down. Internet has grown into a very insecure place over the last couple of years. Government should have more control
For me, for that to occur there needs to be illegal activity, such as a child porn system. While I do agree, the Internet is very unsecured in many areas, I dislike the idea of the government coming in unless it was for the most severe of reasons.
I believe the definition of “emergency” is the key issue.
I do not know how shutting down public, non-governmental ISPs will help the governments terribly insecure networks. The USA Today reported February 17th, 2009, that “Raids on federal computer data soar.” In 2007 there were 3,928 intrusions into the government computers. In 2008, there were 5,488 intrusions! President Bush cut the number of portals linking federal computer networks from 4,500 to 2,500. Less than 1% of federal agencies have the necessary tracking systems to prevent this. As usual I think the government should do their job before infriging on its citizens.