Shutting down the Internet?

[Tater Tot]

A new bill has been introduced in the Senate, that would give the president the power to declare a cybersecurity emergency and shut down both public and private networks including Internet traffic coming to and from compromised systems.

There's an article about it here

Personally, I'm curious about exactly how they would manage this.

[Ground_Breaker]

Where is this coming from? Why suddenly does the president feel the need to have some "ohshi-" button that disables such vast amounts of network space? Also, who defines "critical infrastructure?" What is this in response to? Have I missed some major threat to "critical infrastructure" that needs to have its potential eliminated? Is this about the Conficker virus? If so, then it's a colossal waste of time, because most likely anything the president would deem as "critical infrastructure" would have plenty of security measures already in place that prevent themselves from being affected by something like Conficker.

Originally Posted by That article

CDT's Harris said there is likely to be much concern from the private sector. In CDT's evaluation of the bill's language, Harris says "We read this bill to say it sets a technical standard and one way to do things."

Originally Posted by That article

"If you are a bank or a communications network and you are critical infrastructure you have to meet those standards," says Harris. Such a mandate, she says, would undermine innovation and weaken security because all critical infrastructure would be running the same technology that once compromised would see networks fall like dominoes.

I agree with Leslie Harris. I personally trust that the private sector can develop and maintain its own defense system against any sort of "cyber attack" without the government stepping in and defining a universal standard.

[rushyrulz]

LAME. What is this country turning into? I don't think he'd do it just for fun tho, I think a cybersecurity emergency is like.. Conficker.C being activated and stealing everything on the president's computer, in turn wrecking the country.

Seeing as computers are senator's best friends, and schoolhouse rock taught me how a bill can only become a law if a majority of senators/house vote yes, It's not looking too likely.

[fido123]

IMO this is a good idea. The Chinese have been hacking US Federal Computers recently so I hear and giving the president power to basically hit a "oshi~" button isn't really a bad idea. It's not going to "SHUT DOWN THE INTERNET" rather than simply shutting it for a short while is an organization or another country is going to do something that is REALLY going to cause some damage. They obviously know suspending the whole Internet in the US is a really bad thing to do and will probably only ever do it if absolutely necessary, which will probably be never.

[JKPolk]

Originally Posted by The first sentence

Federal legislation introduced in the Senate this week would give President Obama the power to declare a cybersecurity emergency and then shut down both public and private networks including Internet traffic coming to and from compromised systems

Compromised systems != the internet

You even said that in your synopsis, I don't know what the issue is here.

[tha Guardians]

Originally Posted by Ground_Breaker

I agree with Leslie Harris. I personally trust that the private sector can develop and maintain its own defense system against any sort of "cyber attack" without the government stepping in and defining a universal standard.

The fact of the matter is that at this point, a successful cyber attack on banks, corporations, and government buildings could send the entire world into a devastating depression. If this were to happen say 100 years from now, cities might be without power, total failure of government (like after Katrina), people killing for food, etc.

If such a viruses did come to be, we wouldn't get much use out of the internet at that point, so he might as well be able to shut it down and prevent it.

Originally Posted by Oni-Paranoia

Many Businesses use the internet for whatever reason, even people run their own business using the internet. "shutting down" public and private networks would throw the US into chaos. Overall, the US govn. aren't geniuses. Hackers would have a better chance of protecting any private data if they had the opportunity to. Seriously this is stupid, and so is Obama. Like that GM and Chrysler BS. Bush left a mess that even a black person cant clean.

P.s No more bold

My argument was of a virus that maliciously attacked everything in came in contact with. Just making sure I don't look completely stupid :P

[Oni-Paranoia]

Many Businesses use the internet for whatever reason, even people run their own business using the internet. "shutting down" public and private networks would throw the US into chaos. Overall, the US govn. aren't geniuses. Hackers would have a better chance of protecting any private data if they had the opportunity to. Seriously this is stupid, and so is Obama. Like that GM and Chrysler BS. Bush left a mess that even a black person cant clean.

P.s No more bold

[Crashfan3]

Okay, I don't really understand much about networks and stuff...

But let's just say some bunch of first-class hackers in expensive suits decide to hack into the U.S. government and steal everyone's SSN and post it on the front page of Google.
Can't the FBI, with all their technology, find these hackers and silence them before trouble gets out of hand?

I know I sound like a complete dumb**** with this post, sorry. -.-

[meno_rocks123]

Originally Posted by Crashfan3

Okay, I don't really understand much about networks and stuff...

But let's just say some bunch of first-class hackers in expensive suits decide to hack into the U.S. government and steal everyone's SSN and post it on the front page of Google.
Can't the FBI, with all their technology, find these hackers and silence them before trouble gets out of hand?

I know I sound like a complete dumb**** with this post, sorry. -.-

no, it's actually quite easy to remain completely anonymous on the internet.

[nuclearsamurai]

Originally Posted by meno_rocks123

no, it's actually quite easy to remain completely anonymous on the internet.

Sadly, this is true. I won't say anything, though.

[Bangcrashboom]

It was introduced April 1st, so that means its an April fool's day joke right?

[supersonicpwns]

but its amid emergency. that just if someone is about to hack, THEN Obama will shut the internet down.

[Syhto]

obama

[Phynx]

Originally Posted by Syhto

obama

Big ****ING titties OMFG Syhto...

On Topic: Lol. Why don't we all just agree to become a one world government, dictated in a socialist manner where everything the normal person does is dictated by laws of the world government? Seriously, that's what's gonna happen anyway. Let's just give one man the power to rule the world damn.

[championanwar]

That would be too much, and all that power would surely corrupt the mind of the leader.

[Tater Tot]

I'm pretty sure this is the point in time where I'm supposed to shout "COBRA!!"

Seriously though, I'm wondering, in the event of a shutdown, would the government reimburse companies for information lost on the off chance something important got deleted somehow?

[dore]

It's a good idea. I can see why giving this much power to one man can be a little frightening but it's a good backup to have in place in the event of an emergency.

[clarinet89]

It seems like a good idea on paper, but the true effects of what could happen could potentially be very bad. Not to mention how difficult it might be to get all of the internet providers to turn off internet to all of the people in America would be really hard. Plus, what about foreign countries? We can't turn off their internet too. This could only bring bad things, IMO.

[tofurox]

Dumb.

[UphoricSHD]

this is the future "ohshi-" button we've all been hearing about.