Re: Senators Propose Massive Federal Control Over Cybersecurity and Internet

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Brock N. Meeks" <bmeeks () cox net>
Date: April 4, 2009 12:52:03 AM EDT
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: Re: [IP] Senators Propose Massive Federal Control Over  
Cybersecurity and Internet

Lauren is dead bang on.  In fact, he's being remarkably restrained;  
there
should be a clarion call out on this beast.

Imagine a President able to seize the (U.S. Side) of the Internet, I  
mean
shut the mother down as in "no one can 'see' it," and given the power  
to do
that with no more justification than declaring a "national security
emergency."  No criteria for what a national security emergency must  
be is
defined in the bill.  It harkens back to the famous Vietnam era quote:  
"We
had to destroy the village to save it."  In this case it's "we have to  
seize
the Net to save the Net."

I'm hoping staff counsel were just nodding off when drafting this and  
phoned
in the language and tomorrow we'll wake up and they will say, "Oh,  
c'mon,
Brock, grow up... What we were really trying to do was..."  or perhaps  
they
were too distracted watching the bottoms fall out of their 401(k) plans.

Here's part of a Huffington Post column:

"[The Senators] propose a sweeping federal take over of all cyber  
security
efforts that gives the President plenary power over the Internet and  
other
as yet to be identified "critical infrastructure." In addition to the  
power
to seize and shut down the Internet in the U.S., the President is  
given the
power "in an emergency" to limit Internet traffic to any "critical
infrastructure information system," and puts the Commerce Department  
at the
helm of a federal cyber security clearinghouse with the express power to
override all laws and regulations, including those designed to protect
privacy, to "obtain access to all relevant data" concerning critical
infrastructure information systems and networks owned by the private
sector."

Seriously, I'm not making this stuff up.

More here [link goes to Huffington Post blog entry]:   http://is.gd/qFaa




On 4/3/09 6:44 PM, "David Farber" <dave () farber net> wrote:

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
> Date: April 3, 2009 6:31:28 PM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Senators Propose Massive Federal Control Over Cybersecurity
> and Internet
>
>
>
>    Senators Propose Massive Federal Control Over Cybersecurity and
> Internet
>
>                  http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000534.html
>
>
> Greetings.  I'll keep this brief for now.  Two U.S. Senators have
> proposed new legislation that would provide for a massive increase in
> federal involvement into key aspects of "cybersecurity," plus direct
> impacts on the global Internet's operations, control, and even the
> "certification and licensing" of related personnel.
>
> The draft bill, a copy of which I have archived here:
>
> http://lauren.vortex.com/Cyber-S-2009.pdf
>
> is of such broad and encompassing scope that I won't even try to
> critique it in detail yet.  I urge you to read through it for
> yourself -- and hold on to your hats.
>
> Thought experiment: How will the rest of the world react to this
> proposal?
>
> --Lauren--
> Lauren Weinstein
> lauren () vortex com
> Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
> http://www.pfir.org/lauren
> Co-Founder, PFIR
>   - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
> Co-Founder, NNSquad
>   - Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
> Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition
>   for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
> Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
> Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
> Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
> Twitter: LW1
>
>
>
>
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