A Senate bill would offer President Obama emergency control of the Internet and may give him a "kill switch" to shut down online traffic by seizing private networks -- a move cybersecurity experts worry will choke off industry and civil liberties.Ya Think?
Details of a revamped version of the Cybersecurity Act of 2009 emerged late Thursday, months after an initial version authored by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., was blasted in Silicon Valley as dangerous government intrusion.
"In the original bill they empowered the president to essentially turn off the Internet in the case of a 'cyber-emergency,' which they didn't define," said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, which represents the telecommunications industry.
"We think it's a very
Clinton said the new version of the bill that surfaced this week is improved from its first draft, but troubling language that was removed was replaced by vague language that could still offer the same powers to the president in case of an emergency.
The new improved bill is a tad more...'open-ended'.
"The current language is so unclear that we can't be confident that the changes have actually been made," he said.
In other words, "We don't want you to read this, just approve it."
The new legislation allows the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and make a plan to respond to the danger, according to an excerpt published online -- a broad license that rights experts worry would give the president "amorphous powers" over private users.
Another Chris Matthews 'tingly feeling' there
"As soon as you're saying that the federal government is going to be exercising this kind of power over private networks, it's going to be a really big issue," Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told CNET News.
A Senate source familiar with the bill likened the new power to take control of portions of the Internet to what President Bush did when he grounded all aircraft on Sept. 11, 2001, CNET News reported.
Aircraft were used as weapons to kill people. Cyber attacks on our financial and military systems might be grounds for this. However, information on the internet might hurt the One's feelings and possibly inform the public of the truth. We certainly CAN'T have that.
Spokesmen for Senator Rockefeller and the Commerce Committee did not return calls seeking comment before this article was published.
And Bush was the 'intrusive' President with all that wiretapping and other assorted geegaws. Go read the rest.