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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 of S.773 (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."
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Are we there yet?
2005 GT Mustang, 5 speed manual, 87 tune, modifeid air box, K&N air filter.
Ahhh!!! Oh no!!!! Nobama wants to sit behind his desk in the Whi... er, Black House, to take our computers and give them to lazy black people!!!!
Seriously though, I just want to clarify...
Machine guns along the border, black ops facilities, carrying out unauthorized military operations in friendly nations, and throwing Americans in prisons for years with no regards to their Constitutional rights = fine
Very early version and yet-to-be-fleshed-out bill that gives the ability to defend a host of non-governmental-yet-essential-to-operation-of-country systems (for example the electrical grid) in case of massive terrorist attacks similar to what we have seen the beginnings of in the last few months = taking away your interwebz and freedom of speech.
I'm just checking. Personally I am fine with both because I think when we are under attack you might have to do some pretty big things to keep the nation safe, and I think it is about time we really started working on protecting some of the essential, non-governmental networks. There has been a HUGE uptick in probes of our computer systems, both government and not, and I think we could suffer for this if we do not take some serious steps to protect ourselves in time of attack.
But you seem to think there is a huge, horrible difference here and this is really, really bad and totally wipes ass with the constitution. You must have REALLY been mad when Bush grounded all those airlines on September 11, too; taking away the ability of businesses to make money? What gives the government the right? Hell, it was almost like socialism.
Last edited by Lord Ashram; 08-28-2009 at 02:05 PM.
LOL at posters thinking bill in the senate=president's doing.
btws/edit: to the OP/anyone who agrees with him. Ever heard of the Patriot Act? You should go read it. Might give you a different view on your little buddy named George
Remember the Cash For Clunkers website. You know the one where the warning says if you access the site you agree that your computer becomes a "government" computer and all information becomes government property and can be shared with "anybody" even other nations.
You libs just keep your heads in the sand and keep telling yourself all is OK.
__________________ "The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."
Norman Mattoone Thomas, 1944
"We cannot expect America to jump to communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of socialism until they suddenly awake to find they have communism."
While I don't like the provision that allows the Executive(ANY Executive admin) branch to "take control" when they deem it necessary, I kind of have to lean with Ashram on this one. We're retardedly vulnerable to internet based threats. Basically our entire power and most water grids are computer controlled through network connections, as well as traffic signals and even some emergency communications are transmitted not just via radio, but through network connections, and virtually all things financial. Facebook went down a couple weeks ago simply as a side effect of a Russian cyber assault against Georgian networks, which shows the vulnerability that network systems have to indirect cyber threats, let alone direct ones.
If the provision for Executive control had clear limits as to the circumstances when and the limit to what they can do in said circumstance, I think I could get behind it entirely. Bush grounding all planes on 911 really is pretty much the same thing, a rapid and severe reaction by the government in the midst of an attack at a national level to protect the rest of the country. I'm always leary though of allowing the fed to do anything that the Constitution doesn't allow, if we're not careful how we write these bills they can come back at us years later.
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Who cares how much horsepower it has, all that matters is how fast it goes!
13.20's with 2.25-2.30 60's, 40+ year old suspension sucks!
Best trap 107.11mph, we'll see what the new intake/carb setup does.
12.80 at 110.5mph NHRA DA corrected
Not trying tto start something but, are you people for real? (ASH...and others that see it that way) Why do we just keep pushing the blame to Bush? There is plenty to go around...remember Clinton, the other Bush and many before them? This crap has been in the works for better than 75 years. They are not going to be happy until Washington has absolute control over everyone's lives. This will go on until every American signs over their paycheck and is given an allowance, told where they will work, what they can drive, how much they can drive, what they can and cannot have, and even when they can have kids and when they must die.....for the good of the nation, OR until the people stand up in a revolution.
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed how everyone in Washington is related to each other?
Ever since the beginning of the 20th century when the Supreme Court stopped judging the legality of cases versus the Constitution and began interpreting the Constitution, it's been a slow and steady downhill decline.
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Who cares how much horsepower it has, all that matters is how fast it goes!
13.20's with 2.25-2.30 60's, 40+ year old suspension sucks!
Best trap 107.11mph, we'll see what the new intake/carb setup does.
12.80 at 110.5mph NHRA DA corrected
Not trying tto start something but, are you people for real? (ASH...and others that see it that way) Why do we just keep pushing the blame to Bush? There is plenty to go around...remember Clinton, the other Bush and many before them? This crap has been in the works for better than 75 years. They are not going to be happy until Washington has absolute control over everyone's lives. This will go on until every American signs over their paycheck and is given an allowance, told where they will work, what they can drive, how much they can drive, what they can and cannot have, and even when they can have kids and when they must die.....for the good of the nation, OR until the people stand up in a revolution.
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed how everyone in Washington is related to each other?
You're right. It ALL started in 1798 when John Adams enacted the Alien and Sedition acts. FU Adams!
Besides the fact you definitely like absolutes, how much Glenn Beck juice have you been drinking?!? Holy ****. Do you REALLY think the government is going to want to have ABSOLUTE control over your miserable, mustangforums off-topic posting existence?
Is there any intellectually honest individual who does not believe that the Dems don't want total control over every aspect of our lives? Show me one bill they have proposed lately where they are in favor of empowering the individual instead of the state.
This is just another chink in the armor.
The Democratic party leadership has been overtaken by socialist and I believe it will be their undoing. Whatever happened to the blue dog Democrats?
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Government Warning:
Governments are extremely dangerous.
Death, imprisonment, theft of property
and loss of freedom will result from
giving them too much power.
Last edited by fastbackford351; 08-28-2009 at 02:48 PM.
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OMFG Bill would give president emergency control of Internet
