Here's your Hope and Change

[Predator24]

Keep voting Democrat

August 28, 2009 12:34 AM PDT
Bill would give president emergency control of Internet
by Declan McCullagh Font sizePrintE-mailShare59 comments Yahoo! Buzz
.Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.

They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.



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.

"I think the redraft, while improved, remains troubling due to its vagueness," said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, which counts representatives of Verizon, Verisign, Nortel, and Carnegie Mellon University on its board. "It is unclear what authority Sen. Rockefeller thinks is necessary over the private sector. Unless this is clarified, we cannot properly analyze, let alone support the bill."

Representatives of other large Internet and telecommunications companies expressed concerns about the bill in a teleconference with Rockefeller's aides this week, but were not immediately available for interviews on Thursday.

A spokesman for Rockefeller also declined to comment on the record Thursday, saying that many people were unavailable because of the summer recess. A Senate source familiar with the bill compared the president's power to take control of portions of the Internet to what President Bush did when grounding all aircraft on Sept. 11, 2001. The source said that one primary concern was the electrical grid, and what would happen if it were attacked from a broadband connection.

When Rockefeller, the chairman of the Senate Commerce committee, and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) introduced the original bill in April, they claimed it was vital to protect national cybersecurity. "We must protect our critical infrastructure at all costs--from our water to our electricity, to banking, traffic lights and electronic health records," Rockefeller said.

The Rockefeller proposal plays out against a broader concern in Washington, D.C., about the government's role in cybersecurity. In May, President Obama acknowledged that the government is "not as prepared" as it should be to respond to disruptions and announced that a new cybersecurity coordinator position would be created inside the White House staff. Three months later, that post remains empty, one top cybersecurity aide has quit, and some wags have begun to wonder why a government that receives failing marks on cybersecurity should be trusted to instruct the private sector what to do.

Rockefeller's revised legislation seeks to reshuffle the way the federal government addresses the topic. It requires a "cybersecurity workforce plan" from every federal agency, a "dashboard" pilot project, measurements of hiring effectiveness, and the implementation of a "comprehensive national cybersecurity strategy" in six months--even though its mandatory legal review will take a year to complete.

The privacy implications of sweeping changes implemented before the legal review is finished worry Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. "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," he says.

Probably the most controversial language begins in Section 201, which permits the president to "direct the national response to the cyber threat" if necessary for "the national defense and security." The White House is supposed to engage in "periodic mapping" of private networks deemed to be critical, and those companies "shall share" requested information with the federal government. ("Cyber" is defined as anything having to do with the Internet, telecommunications, computers, or computer networks.)

"The language has changed but it doesn't contain any real additional limits," EFF's Tien says. "It simply switches the more direct and obvious language they had originally to the more ambiguous (version)...The designation of what is a critical infrastructure system or network as far as I can tell has no specific process. There's no provision for any administrative process or review. That's where the problems seem to start. And then you have the amorphous powers that go along with it."

Translation: If your company is deemed "critical," a new set of regulations kick in involving who you can hire, what information you must disclose, and when the government would exercise control over your computers or network.

The Internet Security Alliance's Clinton adds that his group is "supportive of increased federal involvement to enhance cyber security, but we believe that the wrong approach, as embodied in this bill as introduced, will be counterproductive both from an national economic and national secuity perspective."

[ThatHaole]

Look we fucking get it. You don't like Democrats. Can you post this shit in the world news to discuss thread.

[SirLongFoot]

[Predator24]

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No.

This is too important so I put it in it's own thread.

It has nothing to do with the fact that I HATE Democrats. Olympia Snowe is a Republican and co-sponsor with Rockefeller. It has everything to do with the fact that our government is stripping away our first amendment or do you not care about that because I fucking do.

[ThatHaole]

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This is the reason this shit gets locked up. You are jumping to conclusions and while I respect the fact that you served you have no right to say I don't care about the first amendment because I am tired of your political threads. Give it a fucking DSF break. Post tits, chicks with dicks, music, dead hookers, whatever.
But if you start a thread with "Heres your hope and change" you have already begun to lose your argument.

[Predator24]

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We'll see.

[ms. cellany]

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If we all started making threads about issues we each believed were "too important" to go inside of another previously made thread, then this whole place would be overrun with individual threads supporting our own opinions. I would be starting threads posting journal articles about the threat of climate change- because to me, the future of the planet is by far more important than other issues.

We all have our opinions and agendas, and I respect that- but they need to be expressed in the right place and not assumed to be any more important than someone else's opinions.

Just my $0.02.

[skywalker]

I totally agree with Pred. That bill is crasy, in time of crisis I think we should give control of the internet to these two.

[Predator24]

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That's cool and thanks for the $.02.

My point is that once you can no longer speak out in the United States of America in anyway you see fit then you are no longer living in the United States of America. The bill is being drafted and given Obama's track record, it is safe to think that he would be inclined to sign it into law.

[Fever]

Declan McCullagh?
Really Pred?
Haven't you learned anything from past quoting of sources?
Cellany would love this Cato-loving guys stance on Global Warming.
And this is literally the guy who trumped up the Al Gore 'I created the internet' slander; and eats shit on fact check every time.
The cyber-emergency lock-down scenario has been around and is part of the Homeland Security language since the Bushies created it. They're actually trying to reign in the powers previously granted.
Pred, we've been here before, man.