Off/On switch for the InterwebzFollow

Sorry if this was posted already since it's two days old and yeah, my source isn't exactly stellar, but it still makes me wonder.

http://www.phillyd.tv/2009/04/14/obama-owns-your-interwebs/

Quick run down:



Senate bills #773 and #778.

What exactly would be a cyber emergency? At least once that could possibly be a "cyber-Katrina" and warrant shutting down the web as a whole?

This creeps me out.






It better not get in the way of my gaming.

This was posted in the OOT and the comment the OP used there was looks like someone in Washington finally saw "Live free or Die Hard".

Cyber-Katrina: Somali pirates team up with Al Quaida and the Chinese GlobalNet hackers to upload a virus to every computer in the US so that it will get so hot that it undergoes nuclear fusion on November 20th, 2012 if John McCain is not elected president this time around.

Yeah. It drive me nuts when people link to a video of a news story instead of the actual written story.



Haven't looked at the details, so I'm not going to automatically toss out an "OMGZ!!!" response. My understanding is that most of the alarm over this isn't the concept itself, but the vagueness of the criteria under which the powers could be used. I also believe there's a section which grants not just the power to turn off the internet, but basically collect data domestically (yes. This is "actual" domestic spying folks) as part of the emergency powers.

It's the details of the language, not the basic idea. We already have similar powers set up which the executive can use in other situations. The president can close off interstate highways, deputize various agencies, enforce curfews and search/seizure, and mobilize a whole host of federal organizations during a declared emergency, but the law is *really* clear what kinds of things constitute an emergency and what sort of documents and findings have to be present to allow one to be declared. This bill is waaaay too vague in those areas for many people's comfort level.

Edited, Apr 17th 2009 6:57pm by gbaji

Yeah, I don't care much for the rest of the page. I was mostly interested in the article itself. Blaming Obama is just the new conservative black.

No racial pun intended.

I missed something, and don't feel like editing, so nyah!

The "vagueness" in FISA allows the NSA to conduct surveillance on data as long as they are "reasonably sure" that the data in question is not domestic in nature. So the vagueness is not when/why they can use the power, but based on the nature of the data itself. We can do audits and check that the data they are capturing and scanning is actually international and/or foreign and fix problems if/when they occur (as happened in this case).


That's not even remotely the same as what's missing in this legislation.