Internet Kill Switch?

[easysurfer]

CNET , a publication that covers computers and the Internet, reported that the bill would give the president emergency powers to seize control of or shut down portions of the Internet.

Internet 'kill switch' proposed for president

What are your thoughts of an internet kill switch?

I think it gives too much control, yet I think if there was a national threat, the government would do that anyhow if it felt that was necessary.

 

[M Paquette]

The bill was introduced by Senator Joseph Lieberman as S.3480.

S.3480: Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010 - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress

The text of the bill seems to have vanished from the Senate server this morning, but opencongress.org has a copy.

Most of the bill is concerned with creating the new coordinating department, establishing information security and threat responses for various federal agencies, and defining the qualifications and responsibilities for new appointed officials, an official US CERT, and defining relationships to existing state, local, and private information systems security operations (That is, use the existing standards and guidelines the private sector, standards orgs, and Federal agencies have come up with in preference to coming up with something in isolation. A directive to apply common sense, for once, if you will.)

The Feds are not allowed to disapprove security measures others come up with. The owners and operators of critical infrastructure can implement any security measures they find are appropriate to meet Federal performance guidelines. That's a good thing, as it avoids a 'monoculture security' design that allows a single flaw to be exploited over all systems within that monoculture.

The bill really isn't a kill switch, as much as it is a way to set a national priority on blocking a technological attack. Frankly, it looks like a heavy-handed version of the existing Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center, run out of Carnegie Mellon.

 

[TromboneAl]

This is a big blow to Al Gore. Not because he invented the Internet, but because he just signed up with Match.com.

- from some comedian

 

[Onward]

Not because he invented the Internet, but because he just signed up with Match.com.

Thanks for my chuckle of the day!