Gross continues, “Senator Joe Lieberman and other bill sponsors have refuted the charges that the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act gives the president an Internet ‘kill switch.’ Instead, the bill puts limits on the powers the president already has to cause “the closing of any facility or stations for wire communication” in a time of war, as described in the Communications Act of 1934, they said in a breakdown of the bill published on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee website. The committee unanimously approved an amended version of the legislation by voice vote Thursday, a committee spokeswoman said. The bill next moves to the Senate floor for a vote, which has not yet been scheduled.”
“The bill, introduced earlier this month, would establish a White House Office for Cyberspace Policy and a National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications, which would work with private US companies to create cybersecurity requirements for the electrical grid, telecommunications networks and other critical infrastructure,” Gross reports. “The bill also would allow the US president to take emergency actions to protect critical parts of the Internet, including ordering owners of critical infrastructure to implement emergency response plans, during a cyber-emergency. The president would need congressional approval to extend a national cyber-emergency beyond 120 days under an amendment to the legislation approved by the committee. The legislation would give the US Department of Homeland Security authority that it does not now have to respond to cyber-attacks, Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, said earlier this month.”
Gross reports, “On Wednesday, 24 privacy and civil liberties groups sent a letter raising concerns about the legislation to the sponsors. The bill gives the new National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications ‘significant authority’ over critical infrastructure, but doesn’t define what critical infrastructure is covered, the letter said. Without a definition of critical infrastructure there are concerns that “it includes elements of the Internet that Americans rely on every day to engage in free speech and to access information,” said the letter, signed by the Center for Democracy and Technology, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other groups. ‘Changes are needed to ensure that cybersecurity measures do not unnecessarily infringe on free speech, privacy, and other civil liberties interests,’ the letter added.”
Full article via Techworld: “Obama ‘Internet kill switch’ plan approved by US Senate panel; President could get power to turn off Internet”
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Judge Bork” for the heads up.]
I bet the King of England would have liked a “printing press kill switch” leading up to the revolution.
Trolltastic headline. The ‘kill switch’ isn’t for Obama, it’s for whoever is President. But nice try to convince people Obama is the second coming of Dr Evil. I’m sure most MDN readers will lap this up if they can get their noses away from Fox News long enough to read it.
On the other hand, no one should have this authority. If it goes down it goes down. What difference does it make if it gets taken down by a foreign attack or they kill it from this side. If it’s off, it’s off. They should spend their time worrying about the security of sensitive military and government systems and leave the rest of it alone.
Why is this called article called ‘Obama’s internet Kill switch plan’? Didn’t Lieberman write this Bill? Oh, right, I forgot. This is MDN.
The USA sounds more and more like a Communist country….
How about homing pigeons?
Are they a viable back-up,
or would they be killed too?
“Those who would trade their freedom for protection deserve neither.” – Ben Franklin
Spew your bile at the feet if Sanator Jay Rockefeller, the real architect of this disaster. Take tim to read his thoughts on this and other legislation. The more you learn about him and about how ignorant he is on matters of technology and other issues, the more terrified you will be.
I object to the premise of the bill: that the entire global internet is an asset of the US, and that the POTUS should have the authority to turn it off at his own discretion, with no oversight.
IMO, this is an inappropriate power grab for the executive branch.
@Bringer
Why is this called article called ‘Obama’s internet Kill switch plan’? Didn’t Lieberman write this Bill? Oh, right, I forgot. This is MDN.
If you don’t think the Senate coordinates with the executive branch on legislation when the same party controls both, then you haven’t been paying attention.
This is not the “Obama Internet Kill Switch”, he had nothing to do with the formulation of this bill, has not spoken about this bill, and has not indicated whether or not he would sign it into law.
This is the “Joe Lieberman Internet Kill Switch”.
Joe Lieberman is not a democrat. He used to be several years ago, but not anymore. Wikipedia is your friend.
First the auto industry then the banks now the Internet. What will they try to control next? The government has too much power. It’s really scary.
More power for the government without any oversite. What are we becoming?
This has Nothing to do with Obama! Get some therapy- your pathological hatred of him is indeed quite troubling.
MDN you are an ass. Pure and simple. That bill affects the office of the President of the United States no matter who is currently occupying the office. But that doesn’t matter to you and all your Klan buddies who reflexively hate Obama because he’s black.
I see nothing for Right Wingers to bitch about here:
The powers are only available in time of war, and it was their guy, Bush, who got us into -or more charitably, argued that we’re in- a perpetual and unwinnable war.
The Right Wing also supported Bush’s “Free Speech Zones,” and Carnivore, and other anti-4th amendment measures, and suspension of habeus corpus, and extraordinary rendition, etc, etc, etc.
If all that was OK to protect the country, why not a kill switch to prevent a single focused assault from bringing down our entire communications network?
(Internet kill switch enabled with a Democrat as President)
Right Wing Nutbag: “This country is becoming more socialistic and communist every day! The President shouldn’t be allowed to control the internet. This is the land of the free!!!!”
(Internet kill switch enabled with a Republican as President)
Right Wing Nutbag: “With all the terrorism going on in this world, the President needs to control the internet. It’s the only way to keep this country safe from all the crazy people out there!!!”
Basically a bill that says under some undetermined circumstances, presenting some undetermined vague threat as defined by the President, the Federal government can take undetermined actions to shut down undetermined amounts of this thing that is undetermined called “Cyberspace.”
Imagine @Bringer, that just for a moment this was a bill pushed by republicans under the Bush Administration. It would be HEADLINE FREAKING NEWS in every major newspaper, CNN would be beating it to death, nutty leftists would be marching in the streets calling Bush, “Hitler” again.
Not a day goes by where we don’t get bitch slapped by more hope and change.
@Nathan, you clearly haven’t read the bill. The powers are available anytime the president deems them necessary.
And by the way, if it was just times of war, that would include today.
To Those Saying it effect the office of the President no matter who…
Exactly why does that make it ok?
It is being introduced under the auspices of the Obama Administration. President Obama is the current presiding force behind this bill.
If you’re going for a headline that REALLY grabs attention, you should have wrote something like this:
Obama ‘Internet kill switch’, which may or may not include a plan to also kill kittens and crippled children, has been approved by US Senate panel.
If, the next time Windows is under a nation wide virus attack, the US President turns off the Internet, I will file a class action suit on behalf of World Wide Mac and Linux/Unix users.
The bastards!
Complete disingenuous headline MDN. You should be ashamed you trolls!!!
@Nathan
You wrote: “The powers are only available in time of war,”
If you haven’t noticed, they have pretty much fixed it so that every time is a time of war.
Hey jerk… it isn’t MDN… look at the link, or are you just an Obama robot that complains about everything that has BHO’s name attached to it? The article calls it Obama’s Kill Switch. Just about every article I have ever seen says it is Obama’s kill switch.
With that out of the way. I don’t care who the President of the USA us… I don’t like the idea that speech could theoretically be drastically reduced by the flip of the switch by one many – regardless of who that man is.