Obama to have a kill switch for the net?
Should Obama Control the Internet?
A new bill would give the President emergency authority to halt web traffic and access private data.
Should President Obama have the power to shut down domestic Internet traffic during a state of emergency?
Senators John Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) think so. On Wednesday they introduced a bill to establish the Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor–an arm of the executive branch that would have vast power to monitor and control Internet traffic to protect against threats to critical cyber infrastructure. That broad power is rattling some civil libertarians.
The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 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 does not only add to the power of the president. It 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.</em>
Should Obama have this power? In a word, no. Maybe cut the feed to the financial networks to prevent cybertheft-maybe. (And I imagine the NYSE and others already have such things in place), and of course the defense networks, but the rest of us? Screw you Big O, you don’t own the internet. Keep your power-grabbing mitts off it.
