Posted under Politics & Terrorism
How appropriate the bill is drafted by a Rockefeller.
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.”
Source: CNET.
Weaver on 28 Aug 2009 at 8:54 pm #
Complaints against this sound the same as those against the Patriot Act: little accountability and vague boundaries.
D B Allyn on 29 Aug 2009 at 2:49 pm #
Weaver – you are correct, but I fear that like the PA, this piece of trash will fly thro’ also.
roho on 01 Sep 2009 at 1:24 pm #
It will destroy what’s left of transparancy, consolidate the MSM, and deliver the citizen to “State Controled News” as in Communist Russia after WWII.
The citizens of each state will have no access to information in their neighboring states, and the police state will be complete.