ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center
SOURCE: HS Today
25February2011 8:00pmEST
GCIS CYBER-SECURITY UPDATE: The Cybersecurity and Internet Freedom Act, introduced February 17 by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman, Sen. Joe Lieberman, (I-Conn.) ranking member Sen. Susan Collins, (R-Maine), and Federal Financial Management Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), is meeting with a chilly reception by civil liberties groups.
The bill is a revision of legislation originally proposed last year, Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010, that was updated to counter fears that the law, if enacted, could allow a president to shut down or otherwise take control of the Internet in an emergency via a “kill switch."
The new bill explicitly states that “neither the President, the Director of the National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications or any officer or employee of the United States Government shall have the authority to shut down the Internet.” It also provides an opportunity for judicial review of designations of our most sensitive systems and assets as “covered critical infrastructure.”
“We want to clear the air once and for all,” Libermann said when reintroducing the bill. “There is no so-called ‘kill switch’ in our legislation because the very notion is antithetical to our goal of providing precise and targeted authorities to the President.”
Civil liberties groups including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), voiced concerns over the new bill, insisting that that powers granted to the federal government in the bill remain potentially excessive.
“The president would have essentially unchecked power to determine what services can be connected to the Internet or even what content can pass over the Internet in a cybersecurity emergency,” EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston said in a statement Friday. “Our concerns have not changed.” (read full report)