Quote :

"There's a new bill working its way through Congress that is cause for some alarm: the Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (PDF summary here), introduced by Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME). The bill as it exists now risks giving the federal government unprecedented power over the Internet without necessarily improving security in the ways that matter most. It should be opposed or radically amended. Essentially, the Act would federalize critical infrastructure security. Since many of our critical infrastructure systems (banks, telecommunications, energy) are in the hands of the private sector, the bill would create a major shift of power away from users and companies to the federal government. This is a potentially dangerous approach that favors the dramatic over the sober response. One proposed provision gives the President unfettered authority to shut down Internet traffic in an emergency and disconnect critical infrastructure systems on national security grounds goes too far. Certainly there are times when a network owner must block harmful traffic, but the bill gives no guidance on when or how the President could responsibly pull the kill switch on privately-owned and operated networks. Furthermore, the bill contains a particularly dangerous provision that could cripple privacy and security in one fell swoop: The Secretary of Commerce— shall have access to all relevant data concerning (critical infrastructure) networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access… In other words, the bill would give the Commerce Department absolute, non-emergency access to “all relevant data” without any privacy safeguards like standards or judicial review. "

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/cybersecurity-act

10/10/2009 12:39:03 PM

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s773/show

Kind of an interesting link about it.

54 of users that voted support it, 1,277 of users voted oppose it.

10/11/2009 10:45:22 AM

Jay Rockefeller: age 72

Olympia Snowe: age 62


LIKE WE REALLY NEED TWO DODDERING OLD FOOLS WHOSE LAST PERSONAL TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT WAS PROGRAMMING THEIR VCR, TO MAKE LEGISLATION ON INTERNET SECURITY


holy christ on a stick.

10/12/2009 3:37:06 PM

Yeah, this isn't a good idea.

I don't see why they can't simply create an alert system to warn private companies when to shut down networks in some "terrorist virus event" or whatever they're afraid of?

10/12/2009 3:40:55 PM

Could someone help me outs on what this means.

What do they mean "infrastructure systems"? Are they talking about regulating the security (or lack of security) provided by ISPs? Or are they exclusively looking at the security of the intranets of utilities/banks/etc?

I would google, but don't have the time.

10/12/2009 3:46:03 PM