GCIS CYBER-SECURITY BRIEFING: New Cybersecurity Bill Not A Hit With Civil Liberties Groups

 

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)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS CYBER-SECURITY BRIEFING: Internet "Kill Switch": Mapping Out Government’s Proper Role in Cybersecurity

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: The Heritage Foundation

22February2011 2:03pmEST

GCIS CYBER-SECURITY UPDATE: The problem is indeed a challenging one. Clearly, the federal government needs the ability to protect its own interests, some of which require use of the private-sector portions of the Internet. Likewise, the government is charged with providing “for the common defense,” and all Americans would expect it to play a role in defending, say, the West Coast electrical grid against a Chinese assault.

The recent report of Chinese infiltration of Canadian government computers is a salient demonstration of the need for some defensive measures. And the reality is that if pre-enforcement judicial review of any governmental order is required, it is possible that the governmental response will be delayed so long that it proves ineffective.

But equally clearly, giving the government power over the private sector and the Internet is fraught with peril to civil liberties. Even though the legislation has explicit language denying presidential power to cut Americans off from the Internet generally (and even though any President of either party should not be presumed to exercise powers granted in a dictatorial way), the recent experiences in Egypt make it clear how relatively easy it is for an autocratically minded leader to take control of private conduct.

And even when government acts with good intent, mistakes happen—for example, the recent error in which DHS mistakenly seized a number of innocent domain names that it thought were tied to child pornography but were not. Post-enforcement judicial review is of less value after the order has already been given and implemented. (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.