Bill would give president emergency control of Internet

[classicman]

Link

Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.

They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.

The new version would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for "cybersecurity professionals," and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.

"I think the redraft, while improved, remains troubling due to its vagueness," said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, which counts representatives of Verizon, Verisign, Nortel, and Carnegie Mellon University on its board. "It is unclear what authority Sen. Rockefeller thinks is necessary over the private sector. Unless this is clarified, we cannot properly analyze, let alone support the bill."

Representatives of other large Internet and telecommunications companies expressed concerns about the bill in a teleconference with Rockefeller's aides this week, but were not immediately available for interviews on Thursday.

A spokesman for Rockefeller also declined to comment on the record Thursday, saying that many people were unavailable because of the summer recess. A Senate source familiar with the bill compared the president's power to take control of portions of the Internet to what President Bush did when grounding all aircraft on Sept. 11, 2001. The source said that one primary concern was the electrical grid, and what would happen if it were attacked from a broadband connection.

When Rockefeller, the chairman of the Senate Commerce committee, and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) introduced the original bill in April, they claimed it was vital to protect national cybersecurity. "We must protect our critical infrastructure at all costs--from our water to our electricity, to banking, traffic lights and electronic health records," Rockefeller said.

The Rockefeller proposal plays out against a broader concern in Washington, D.C., about the government's role in cybersecurity. In May, President Obama acknowledged that the government is "not as prepared" as it should be to respond to disruptions and announced that a new cybersecurity coordinator position would be created inside the White House staff. Three months later, that post remains empty, one top cybersecurity aide has quit, and some wags have begun to wonder why a government that receives failing marks on cybersecurity should be trusted to instruct the private sector what to do.

I happened upon this article and haven't heard a peep about it anywhere else. Any thoughts.

I think its a good thing that the internet is there as, if nothing else, a form of communication when all hell is breaking loose.

Some will see it as a "control" issue - others probably think its our Gov't taking care of us..... Whadda you you think?

[Shawnee123]

Who the hell is Bill and why would he need or want to give the president control of teh interwebz?

[Glinda]

Doesn't bother me in the least. It's no different than what we've already got with the airwaves - the government can step in anytime (i.e. suspending regular broadcasting) to make emergency announcements.

Of course, the birthers and the deathers and the 9-11 conspiracy nuts will all have cows over this...

[classicman]

....but but but its in writing - it HAS to be true...

[tw]

The example sounds too much like the entire fiasco and the resulting fears.

A Senate source familiar with the bill compared the president's power to take control of portions of the Internet to what President Bush did when grounding all aircraft on Sept. 11, 2001.

Since nobody in the George Jr White did that or anything else that day (even fighter pilots never got authorized to defend Washington), then the example suggests the Keystone cops are fighting each other.

When does he movie come out? The one with a fictional story of George Jr commanding the nation's defense from a child's chair in a FL classroom. Keystone cops now wear suits and ties.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Who did it, then? Somebody shut down the air traffic.

[tw]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Who did it, then? Somebody shut down the air traffic.

From the 911 Commission:

Shortly before 9:10, suspecting that American 77 had been hijacked, American headquarters concluded that the second aircraft to hit the World Trade Center might have been Flight 77. After learning that United Airlines was missing a plane,American Airlines headquarters extended the ground stop nationwide.

By 9:00, FAA and airline officials began to comprehend that attackers
were going after multiple aircraft. American Airlines’ nationwide ground stop between 9:05 and 9:10 was followed by a United Airlines ground stop.

By 9:25, FAA’s Herndon Command Center and FAA headquarters knew two aircraft had crashed into the World Trade Center. They knew American 77 was lost. At least some FAA officials in Boston Center and the New England Region knew that a hijacker on board American 11 had said "we have some planes"” Concerns over the safety of other aircraft began to mount. A manager at the Herndon Command Center asked FAA headquarters if they wanted to order a "nationwide ground stop"” While this was being discussed by executives at FAA headquarters, the Command Center ordered one at 9:25.

Who made decisions? John S. White. At that time, he was Manager of the System Efficiency Division. He ordered all other airlines grounded. He was not even manager of the facility. The ATC handbook gave the facility no power to do what he did.

Nobody in the George Jr administration made any decisions that day. None called for fighter protection even for the White House. None authorized fighters to shoot down an attacking airliner. Fighter pilots who were dispatched by little people (one request even came from a Secret Service agent asking his friend in the Air Force to launch planes). No fighter was ever given authority to stop an attack.

Airlines grounded their planes. White's own employees were yelling at him to ground planes when he did so. Boston and NY Centers took it upon themselves to ground planes and call for scrambled fighters while mental midgets in the George Jr administration coud not make any decisions. In a conference call between the FAA Commissioner Jane Garvey, the Secretary of Transportation, and the military; the military left that phone call because these mental midgets were not making any decisions.

George Jr did absolutely nothing that day. Neither he nor his entire staff could make any decision. So a Secret Service agent ordered everyone back on Air Force 1 saying that they could make up their minds after the plane was airborne.

John White reports to Jeff Griffith at Headquarters that UAL 93 is 29 minutes out of the Washington area. It turned around over Akron Ohio and is trakcing towards Washington. xxx take the line. What ask him if they want to scramble aircrafts. xxx says he does not know. White syas that is a decision that needs to be made in the next ten minutes. xxx responds that everyone just left the room. xxx tries to relay that information to someone else, most likely yyy. ...

John White was not aware that Headquarters did nothing with the information he reported on UAL93. He said, "that is a shame."

Common knowledge - no administration official made a decision that day. Even George Jr sat in a child's chair in FL for 15 minutes without asking a single question. Apparently he was waiting for someone to tell him what to do. Then we reelected him.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Thank you.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by tw

From the 911 Commission:

. . . no surprise there.

Your quotes say NOTHING about when the administration knew what. How was the communication between the airline and the white house handled? When did the airline share what it knew. This seems like great hindsight to me. What an amazing ability you have to selectively quote things and create a revisionist history to achieve your own agenda.

So what you expected was for 1 man or at best a group of what 10(?) to take over every aspect of everything immediately? Seems to me the people in charge of their respective areas would be the ones to stat doing this, with some type of direction from their leadership. How quickly you forget that this was something totally out of the realm of any rational person's logic?

Originally Posted by tw

Common knowledge - no administration official made a decision that day.

Typical assumption to achieve a personal agenda, typical.

A huge part of leadership is delegation and allowing those in charge to take care of their respective areas of expertise. What was/is the communication stream from an airline to the administration? Who knew what when and when was it relayed to the actual people you are criticizing?

Originally Posted by tw

None authorized fighters to shoot down an attacking airliner.

Define an "attacking airliner." Who is going to make that assessment? How, When? based upon what information? Where are they flying? Over a city, a town hundreds or thousands of people below??? What a ridiculous statement, even for you. Since then we have had multiple incidents where tw has posted just the opposite of this, the plane from Canada is just one example.

[smoothmoniker]

Originally Posted by classicman

So what you expected was for 1 man or at best a group of what 10(?) to take over every aspect of everything immediately?

All other points aside, this is, yes, exactly what we expect them to do.

[Shawnee123]

I agree with smooth. Yes, that is exactly what I would want them to do, and know how to do.

If nothing else, I think the leaders are more prepared for just about anything. Well, one would hope.

I watch United 93, a real time account, and it's chilling: no one ever expected anything like this. We need to expect anything. Our highest ranking officials should have a game plan, so that yes, they can take over every aspect of everything immediately. Scary and cynical, but true.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Sure they should take charge, but it takes time for the right information to be passed up the line and assessed, even if anyone had foreseen such an attack.
Fortunately the people that had the information acted responsibly.

As much as I dislike Bush, I think he was fully aware the team that travels with him on Air Force one was much more capable than he, in accessing information and acting on it.

[Undertoad]

The last thing you want in an emergency situation with "fog of war" in effect is for all command decisions to come from the very top. WTF does the Pres know about grounding commercial aviation? "Sir, do you want them to just head to the closest airport from the nearest beacon?" "Wait let me call my buddy who's a pilot and we can figure that out."

[Shawnee123]

The idea is that competent people, when given the "word" from the pres, do the actual "doing." They do what needs done in their particular area of expertise: this to me is just a plan to make it work if there ever were a cyber-attack, rather than everyone running around waiting for permission to do what they already know needs to be done. I certainly wouldn't envision Obama logging on to his computer and start doing all the things that need doing.

[Undertoad]

No need for a "word". They already have it.