It's alive!
The internet kill switch that supposedly died last summer is rising from the dead with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine planing to reintroduce the "Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010." Source: InformationWeek.com.
No doubt our elected officials saw Hosni Mubarak trigger his own internet kill switch in Egypt and thought that might be a cool tool to have. The public is wary, so Senators Collins and Lieberman put out a document titled Myth-v-Reality.pdf in an attempt to reassure the public that they mean no harm. That document says the switch probably wouldn't get used because the president already has the power to close "any facility or station for wire communication." And the new bill puts up a few hoops he would have to jump through first.
Well, okay then.
The stuxnet virus certainly should have made a convincing case for the need to be prepared. But the problem many internet users have is that the bill is reactive not preventative. They expect the government to put protective measures in place without a law telling them to do it. But more importantly, they don't trust a president of either party to use a kill switch wisely.
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