Just like that AT&T commercial, soon we may be hearing our president on television saying “I’m Barack Obama, and I just took over the internet”–that is if S.773 is passed. According to the bill, the president would have the authority to declare a “Cyber emergency” and would then have the power to commandeer not only government networks, but private networks as well. From the Bill:
CYBERSECURITY RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUTHORITY.
The President—
(1) within 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, shall develop and implement a comprehensive national cybersecurity strategy, which shall include— (A) a long-term vision of the Nation’s cybersecurity future; and (B) a plan that encompasses all aspects of national security, including the participation of the private sector, including critical infrastructure operators and managers; (2) in the event of an immediate threat to strategic national interests involving compromised Federal Government or United States critical infrastructure information system or network— (A) may declare a cybersecurity emergency; and (B) may, if the President finds it necessary for the national defense and security, and in coordination with relevant industry sectors, direct the national response to the cyber threat and the timely restoration of the affected critical infrastructure information system or network; (3) shall, in coordination with various critical infrastructure industry sectors, develop detailed cyber emergency response and restoration plans for each critical infrastructure industry sector…
The bill, introduced in april of this year and was recently amended to add the above vocabulary by Aides of Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), the chairman of the Senate Commerce committee. When the bill was originally introduced by both Rockefeller and Maine Republican Olympia Snowe, both claimed that the bill would help bolster the nation’s 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 in regard to the bill.
Critics of the bill, your less-than-humble-correspondent included, wonder if Americans would be willing to hand over their privacy and their internet to Obama; who, despite running the most connected campaign in American history has received failing marks with regard to cybersecurity. Last May, Obama annouced that he would be create a white house staff position that dealt exclusively with national cybersecurity, three months later that post remains unfilled and one of his top cybersecurity aides has quit. Many feel that Obama is not prepared to handle the power that this bill would give him.
In addition to concerns about Obama’s preparedness, the bill itself does not appear to contain any measure of restraint or check on the president’s power. According to CNET’s Declan McCullagh: “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.” But the bill does not describe what powers the president has in directing the cyber threat, nor does it identify criteria by which a corporation, sector or industry might be deemed “Critical”. Roughly translated into normal-people speak: If your company’s data is deemed to be “critical” then another new set of regulations are put into play that limit who you can employ, what information you must disclose both to the federal government ostensibly to the public, and when the government would take control of your once private networks.
Now, folks, I am all for protecting the internet. How else would the Harrington Report provide our loyal readers with the news and infotainment that they have come to expect. However, I have a serious problem with the Federal Government snooping around my servers (I assume they will want to snoop around the Report’s servers because we are after all a national treasure). Now all that is left is to see whether the Legislature and Obama pick the red pill or the blue pill. I know which one i would pick because I do not want to see how far the rabbit hole goes.
Read- CNET
Read- S.773
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