Am I behind?
I recently saw someone complaining about s.773 the 2009 Cybersecurity act, claiming that it would give the president the power to cut off internet access to the private sector…Well…I read it here and I can’t find that suggestion anywhere.
What I can find is this:
[The President] (2) may declare a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic to and from any compromised Federal Government or United States critical infrastructure information system or network…(6) may order the disconnection of any Federal Government or United States critical infrastructure information systems or networks in the interest of national security…Just to be clear, this bill as it is currently written is vague and troubling for that vagueness. What that means is that it should not be passed without some work on the definition of “United States critical infrastructure information systems or networks.” It is clear that the purpose of this bill is to protect Government systems from cyber attack, and it is also clear that the backers of this bill know very little about how these systems work.
What it isn’t: it is not a massive, sweeping, “guvmint kin taek away my intarwebs when they pry them from my cold dead motherboard!” kind of situation. Yes it needs more oversight written in. Otherwise it isn’t a bad idea.
That looks about right to me. Like you, I would want to know what qualifies as “United States critical infrastructure” which is still vague as defined in 23(3)(B):
State, local, and non-governmental information systems and networks in the United States designated by the President as critical infrastructure information systems and networks.
This could easily include large scale services providers, such as Verizon and others who provide services to Governmental entities and contractors. I can see clear justification in times of verifiable compromise, but (6) is particularly broad. My guess - and I say that without having actually looked at the other sections of the bill, so I could be wrong - is that there may be connections with other bills that provide more oversight than is obvious here.
Notes:
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emandink reblogged this from telegantmess and added:
Agreed completely. At the very least, there should be clear, legal guidelines for both what constitutes a critical...
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telegantmess reblogged this from emandink and added:
Earlier parts of the bill do specify that the President has the responsibility to respect and protect civil liberties in...
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telegantmess posted this
