New CyberSecurity Bill Raises Privacy Questions 319
Nicolas Dawson points out coverage in Mother Jones of the early stages of a new cybersecurity bill that conveys sweeping powers on the President. Quoting: "The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (PDF) gives the president the ability to 'declare a cybersecurity emergency' and shut down or limit Internet traffic in any 'critical' information network 'in the interest of national security.' The bill does not define a critical information network or a cybersecurity emergency. That definition would be left to the president. The bill ... also grants the Secretary of Commerce 'access to all relevant data concerning [critical] networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access.' This means he or she can monitor or access any data on private or public networks without regard to privacy laws."
Back in the... (Score:1, Funny)
USSA
Mr President... (Score:5, Funny)
You can take my connection from my cold dead SANs!!!!
Or
All yer Pix is belong to U.S.
Or
HSRP - Homeland Security Routing Protocol
Or
TCP/IP - Total Control President/Internet Precedent
Augh! (Score:1, Funny)
I had first post, but the president shut down my internet!
Re:Preparations for the third Bush administration (Score:3, Funny)
You're a funny guy! I may agree with your first statement, but your second is just Republican "But We Were SUPPOSED To Rule Forever Without Opposition Or Restraint" sour grapes. C'mon. You're just mad that it's Democrats taking away rights instead of Republicans - after all, that's supposed to be YOUR schtick!
Re:wow (Score:5, Funny)
What, like he's President Google or something?
Actually, if there's any organization that already has the power to "shut down the Internet," Google comes pretty close. It's not like they could seal off the tubes, but it's an interesting mental exercise to imagine just how much Internet traffic would be curtailed if Google suddenly ceased all of its operations.
Then again, Microsoft could kill a lot of Internet activity if it suddenly activated whatever remote kill switch it might have in every legitimate Windows install. The only country largely unaffected would be China. ;)
Re:I believe now is an appropriate time to cue the (Score:3, Funny)
Nothing, anything can be deemed "critical" (kind of like "too big to fail") because there are no stipulations on the term critical.
Such as "We must shut down access to porn sites because it is critical to the morals of our society."
Not specifically saying he would do that (although future administrations might with this power) its just the first thing that came to mind.
(Yes, I said it, porn was the first thing to come to mind)
Re:wow (Score:5, Funny)
That's why we should remove the oversight responsibility from Congress and assign it to the Union of Retired Postal Workers. Then we could have rubber-pantied stamp wasters.
It just sounds like a lot more fun to me.
Re:The United States doesn't own the Internet... (Score:3, Funny)
Now where'd I put that pitchfork and torch?
Re:Who needs the constitution... (Score:4, Funny)
Well, Presidential appointees don't seem to pay any taxes either and the last time I checked that was also illegal. More of the same 'do as I say, not as do.'
No, you missed the point. The only way to get these guys to pay their taxes is for the president to appoint them to office.
So far Obama has a 100% success record in collecting from these guys.
He's not "the uniter," nor is he "the decider," Obama is "the collector."