Posted on 08/28/2009 8:13:33 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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."
OMGosh we have one of the routers!!!!!
The antenna is something we would need to get. So would this help if WideOpenWest cut our ISP?
Thanks in advance!
Here is the bill...
S. 773:
111th Congress 2009-2010 Cybersecurity Act of 2009
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-773
bttt
Thanks for the links.
A Senate bill would offer President Obama emergency control of the Internet and may give him a "kill switch" to shut down online traffic by seizing private networks -- a move cybersecurity experts worry will choke off industry and civil liberties.
I think I saw this movie. I know I read a book series about this.
Thanks for your post.
They can shut that down too if they want (IE, no licenses, and they can jamb the frequencies of unencrypted radios).
It's 11:59 on Radio Free America; this is Uncle Sam, with music, and the truth until dawn. Right now I've got a few words for some of our brothers and sisters in the occupied zone: "the chair is against the wall, the chair is against the wall", "john has a long mustache, john has a long mustache". It's twelve o'clock, American, another day closer to victory. And for all of you out there, on, or behind the line, this is your song.
--from Red Dawn
Here’s an idea. We have an emergency telephone plan at work. If something happens, one person is designated to call another person who calls another person and so on and so on. It would be a start.
How about all the coal mines in Illinois?
This is good so we can communicate with each other, but what about getting news from online sources?
Are you still holding my spot in TX?
I’ll bring Chocolate Chip Cookies if you share your powergrid.
;-)
Cell phones, (radio too, quite possibly), tv, internet, regular phone lines may all be either out or compromised. Be able to get the message out without appearing to be doing anything but having an innocuous conversation.
Simple physical signals work, too, from the position of yard gnomes to the curtains in your windows, anything can be used as a 'dead drop' message to those who are in the know and who go by your place.
Now is the time to do it. When you need it, it will be too late.
An outdoor antenna with DD-WRT would help you find other wireless routers, and if you know someone who’s willing to let you connect you can use the connection to their network to easily share files, printers, etc even if everyone’s cut off from their ISP.
Along with that is FR on Facebook, Free Dominion’s FReeper room and the Yahoo Group.
Thanks!!!!
I’m going to get the DH working on this ASAP
“That is how I viewed the C4C program. They taxed the destruction to boot. A socialist's twofer.”
Bingo! Do the math!
500,000 cars destroyed. Say average value was $2,000.
That is $1,000,000,000 of wealth destroyed.
To pay to have the cars destroyed, the government borrows 500,000 x $4,500 = 2,250,000,000
To buy the news cars individuals borrow 500,000 x $20,000 = 10,000,000,000
So, we have destroyed $1 Billion worth of assets and taken on $12.5 Billion of new debt. That is before the environmental disaster of disposing of 500,000 destroyed automobiles. The Obama administration is pointing to the program as a raging success.
Idiots.
bttt
So let me get this straight - Snowe and Rockefeller are basically saying the government can protect individual energy/power/sensitive outlets from cyber attack so they seek some type of ‘emergency’ power to control our entire internet access ability instead?
What is the DEAL with Olympia Snowe?
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