The Internet Kill Switch---wth?

[kshillbillys]

A new Senate bill, sponsored by Senator Joseph Lieberman, proposes to give the president the authority "to seize control of or even shut down portions of the Internet," according to CNET.

The authority granted to the government in the bill, known as the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act (PCNAA), has been likened to an Internet "kill switch."

The bill would require that private companies--such as "broadband providers, search engines, or software firms," CNET explains--"immediately comply with any emergency measure or action" put in place by the Department of Homeland Security, or else face fines.

It would also see the creation of a new agency within the Department of Homeland Security, the National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC). Any private company reliant on "the Internet, the telephone system, or any other component of the U.S. 'information infrastructure'" would be "subject to command" by the NCCC, and some would be required to engage in "information sharing" with the agency, says CBS4.

Numerous groups, such as TechAmerica, have criticized the bill, warning of the "potential for absolute power" and expressing reservations about the "unintended consequences that would result from the legislation's regulatory approach."

Liberman recently defended the PCNAA, arguing that it was imperative the president had the ability to "say to an electric company or to say to Verizon, in the national interest, 'There's an attack about to come, and I hereby order you to put a patch on this, or put your network down on this part, or stop accepting any incoming from country A.'"

He added that the bill is necessary for it would reduce the liability of companies that may need to resort to extreme measures in an emergency situation. Companies might have to "do things in a normal business sense you'd be hesitant to do but national security requires you to do," Lieberman explained, adding "We protect them from that because the action the government is ordering them to take is in national security or economic interest."

CNET notes an Internet "kill switch" has been proposed before:


A draft Senate proposal that CNET obtained in August allowed the White House to "declare a cybersecurity emergency," and another from Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) would have explicitly given the government the power to "order the disconnection" of certain networks or Web sites.

[pamagain]

Terrorists using websites to comunicate incognito is the reason trotted out for this bill, that and hackers.

[srkruzich]

Terrorists using websites to comunicate incognito is the reason trotted out for this bill, that and hackers.

Those are red herrings.   Its about political control especially during election times.

[pamagain]

 Actually it's about BOTH

[srkruzich]

Actually it's about BOTH

Well first of all, if they kill it the terrorists will still continue to communicate.  Lol they don't need the internet and boards to do this.  Secondly, if obama did kill the internet, it wouldn't take 1 day before a underground network would be up and running.  We used to call it fidonet, and There are thousands of folks that still have the software and the skills to get it up and running in a matter of hours. 
Thirdly, hackers are no real threat because 99% of the wannabe hackers are just dumb kids out for a thrill.  There are people out there, and i am one of them that can access just about anything we want.  Secondly NO ONE in the business allows a production server to be conneted to the internet.  Period.  Its just not done.  IF they do they have idiots running their computer department and they deserve to be hacked.
We in the industry put in place servers called lambs.  They are those servers that you surf to.  NONE of these servers are inside our networkds. Their external.  So if a hacker hits it, no big deal. Just go in, wipe it clean, restore the backup and your back online.  Only stupid people put their production servers out there for the whole world to access.

Government servers are not outside the network.  When you go to ssa.gov, or even the dod server, you are not accessing their network.  You are accessing the lamb.  It is a mirrored server that is connected to the production server trough a hardwired secure NON HACKABLE network because it requires: 1. a computer that has a approved ethernet connection with 2 emac address combinations,  2. it requires a random token to login after you pass that first secure connetion which this random token is timed with a token server on the inside of their network, and you have a token card that gives you the number to enter.  The token number changes every minute and you have 30 seconds to enter it.
3. Once you have accessed the network, you still are restricted to the 192 net which is the top layer.  10 net is your bottom layer and no one gets to 10 net unless your inside the building.   

Its rather impossible to hack.  So when you hear that the pentagon server got hacked, or any other govt server got hacked, it's pure 100% bulls***. 

What is left is, they know they are losing the fight on the fairness doctrine that they have been trying to force down our throats for years.  So they have to come up with another way to stop freedom of speech.  Since most of your radio airwaves and tv airwaves these days run over the internet backbone, aka Sprint, AT&T, ect ect.... then if they can shut it down, they can stop free speech.