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 see it was unanimously voted out of committee. One of the few truly bipartisan bills to be reported to the Senate floor. It is owned equally by Dems and Repubs.
A kill switch foe the biggest dumbass prez since Carter? Arghhhhhhh
I am not scared of terrorists im scared of our government and all these bills they pass to take over things. The internet is a worldwide thing its not limited to the us so how he has the authority to control the internet.
I believe that the govt should not have so much control over everything.
And the threat of terrisiom is just a tactic by the govt to get us to lay down our freedoms to them.
some AMAZING knee jerk responses so far…
@TheloniusMac-
No, I’ve only read some of the news coverage, but my point stands. This is so, so, so minor compared to the incredible unconstitutional executive over-reach by the previous administration. Yet that administration had the full-throated backing of the Right Wing, even when it asserted that it could kidnap and torture American citizens in secret; so it’s hypocritical to hear Wingers complain about this. I suppose that by now it’s unrealistic for me to expect anything else from them, but still.
And BTW, there were a lot fewer Leftists arguing “Hitler ad absurdum” during the Bush years than Rightys doing so now. The leftists also didn’t tend to show up at the President’s appearances armed to the teeth, though for the record, Obama doesn’t move the armed nuts off into corrals away from the event, or outright arrested, like Bush did with all those dangerous lefties armed with… T-shirts and bumper stickers.
Also, the MSM was so unwilling to criticize Bush that outlets like the NYT wound up issuing retractions and apologies for their blind cheerleading lack of coverage in the run-up to war in Iraq. Sadly, that didn’t stop them from going on to credit the absurd legal novelties concocted by amoral idiots like Gonzalez and Yoo.
Oh, and @ Selective Thinking?
lol
Exactly.
“… One of the few truly bipartisan bills to be reported to the Senate floor. It is owned equally by Dems and Repubs…”
That should set of the warning bells. More control and
power to the party who happens to be in office.
I don’t give a shit what you think about this, but Homeland Security is TOO goddamned powerful. Nineteen Eighty-Four, here we come. The Thought Police are lurking around the corner…
Hmm. Normally, I love the idea of telling the MAN where to stick things, and want to limit the concentration of power (government and big business). But…
Where’s the kill switch? I read the bill, there is no killing power. Even assuming a power-crazed President (the current one and last on both count, in my book). What can the MAN do? Tell identified IT systems (what, not the internet at large?) to implement their own emergency programs.
What else? The MAN can “develop and coordinate emergency measures or actions necessary to preserve the reliable operation, and mitigate or remediate the consequences” of cyber attacks. Sounds like the MAN is relying on private business here, not imposing a kill switch.
And yes, even in the wake of BP, the MAN realizes it should not make an Empire-like power grab to protect poor Naboo. Sometimes, in fact most times, the only way to learn from your mistakes is to….make them and learn from them. I don’t believe the MAN when he says he will take care of me, because he finally knows how. Nuh uh.
And I’m not afraid that the so-called Kill Switch exists. It’s the fact that the guidelines under which they are used will be vague at best, full of loop holes. Think how much the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act has been abused… I guarantee in the future someone will see it as a threat to their “correct” ideology and flip it for “our protection, and the protection of the sanctity of American Values…”. Terrifying. Just terrifying. I say again, the Thought Police are coming…wait and see…
Did everyone miss the qualifier, ‘… 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[.]’
Wait a minute!! Has anyone run this by Al Gore, the inventor of the internet? I’m pretty sure he should get a ‘heads up’ in this matter.
“The USA sounds more and more like a Communist country….”
You, and similar others, REALLY need to do a bit of reading and learn what communism actually means and how it operated. E.g. wanting general health care – like EVERY other western nation has – is not “communist”.
Also, please learn enough to use concrete information (like Nathan above) rather than just throwing around emotional trigger words and thinking that constitutes expressing a coherent opinion.
@Nathan (and some others)
In case you haven’t noticed it, we are already in a state of war and have been for almost a decade. A War on Terror that both ends of the political spectrum have declared will take a hundred years.
Current state of the Union:
an oligarchy pressed into the service of a plutocracy..
.:.
Wow, I can’t believe how
(1) Far removed from Apple news this is,
(2) Disingenuous the headline is,
(3) Irrationally anti-Obama this website is.
I’m not sure if this site is run by run-of-the mill right-wing nut jobs or skin-heads, but either-way, I’m out of here. I’m getting all my Apple news for other websites from now on.
So long
First, this is still another opportunity for annoyance – it is being run by MDN either to slap Obama or generate hits. Neither is a noble goal.
Second, I am a moderate, registered independent (and a nonpartisan cynic). This legislation deeply troubles me (but, then, it comes from Joe Lieberman…). Its existence has its roots in the liberties that the Bush Administration played with the 4th Amendment, especially in its warrantless eavesdropping on domestic communications – something that continues to this day under Obama. The fact that there aren’t any nonpartisan objections to this creeping control of what ought to be open communications channels is VERY distressing to anyone, left or right, who values American freedoms. But stopping it needs to include the invasions of privacy that began under Bush.
It appears from the article that this alleged “kill switch” has existed for all media since 1934, and they are just fine-tuning it. However, that is probably a nefarious plot by Republicans who traveled back in time to 1934 to set it up. Or maybe it is a nefarious plot by Democrats who set all this in motion long ago to gain absolute control.
Or maybe our current paranoid, fractious, partisan politics have distorted this all out of proportion. Politics in this country is turning into a Three Stooges pie fight. Aren’t there any adults left in this country?
@Michael Linehan
He’ll reply to your comment as soon as Fox News tells him what to think.
@leodavinci
My memories go back to the 50s. I do not recall a time when we were not in a war.
” X “
Don’t you mean Ronald “Alzheimer’s” Reagan,
OR George “Village edit from Texas” W Bush.
National Debt clock has been turned off twice, once during Clinton’s terms (was not needed) and once turning George “W”‘s term (to add more digits. WE RAN OUT !!
Baby Bush screws this country up, and you blame it on the black guy. (nice try)
It always takes longer to cleanup a mess than create it.
Baby Bush took 8 years to screw it up, give the black guy at least as much time to clean it up.
@leodavinci
Yeah, I know.
And whether you take a short term look at the previous administration or the long view of our historical foreign policy (including energy policy), the Right Wing got us into it.
Unfortunately, the ability to shut down the internet by throwing a switch could also be used to instantly silence public dissent in the (admittedly unlikely) event of a hostile takeover of the government. Stranger things have happened. Definitely a chilling scenario.
No we are all screw, how are we to stay informed and rise up against the zombies when the world ends. I can see it now 2030 zombie virus breaks, the current president shuts off internet to stop the spread of panic and now zombies are walking around and we have no time to prepare. I know i am not the only one who has a backup plan for the zombie wars. I would need to update all my buddies on facebook and tweet where zombies are heavy at. but now i cant and if anyone finds a good place to hide i wont know. great we are all dead.
@thelonious:
We have three separate, distinct, branches of government. If the Executive branch even hinted at usurping the Legislative branch, even under Democratic control,
Articles of Impeachment would probably be drawn up within 24 hours.