Internet Security and the Federal Gov't

They just keep chipping away at our freedoms and now they have come out of the closet. Last June, a bill introduced in the Senate was designed to give the President power over the Internet by giving the White House an Internet “Kill Switch”.

Under this bill, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would form a division named the National Center for Cyber-security and Communications (NCCC) that would monitor net traffic and keep an eye open for threats against the Internet. Under the NCCC all federal gov’t internet capabilities would be monitored by the NCCC. But, the bill would also declare “virtually all private communications infrastructure in the US “National Assets” over which the NCCC has vast regulatory power…” If a threat is detected, the Sec of DHS would let the President know what is going on and (s)he would order the offending site or area of the net shut down.

One of the key provisions within the bill is there will be absolutely no judicial review of these actions and the bill is written in such a way that prohibits the courts from reviewing it. There is an appeals avenue but that is to the Sec of DHS and that appeal is final. Kind of like the fox watching the henhouse.

The bill would authorize the DHS to monitor private providers of Internet access and content.  According the Sen Joe Lieberman (I-CT), a co-sponsor of the legislation, this bill would charge the DHS to “provide ‘situational awareness of the security status’ of the portions if the Internet that inside the US – and also those portions in other countries that, if disrupted, could cause significant harm”. (from CNET.com) The article goes on to state:

“Selected private companies would be required to participate in ‘information sharing’ with the Feds. They must ‘certify in writing to the director’ of the NCCC whether they have ‘develop and implemented’ federally approved security measures, which could be anything from encryption to physical security mechanisms, or programming techniques that have been ‘approved by the director’. The NCCC director can ‘issue an order’ in cases of noncompliance.” (CNET.com)

There are some organizations that are pushing back on this attempt by the federal gov’t to have this kind of control over the Internet.

Berin Szoka, an analyst at the free-market Tech Freedom think tank says, “No amount of tightening of what constitutes ‘critical infrastructure’ will prevent abuse without meaningful judicial review.  Blocking judicial review of the key question essentially says that the rule fo law goes out the window if and when a major crisis occurs.” (CNET.com)

Jim Harper, the Director of Information Policy Studies at the Cato Institute testified before Congress in June, 2009 that this bill was much too over-reaching and the hyperbole surrounding the bill was a little over the top (NOTE: PACNW Righty paraphrasing a very long transcript). Some highlights from his testimony:

“The Center for Strategic and International Studies’ influential report, Securing Cyberspace for the 44^th Presidency, said similarly that cyber-security “is a strategic issue on par with weapons of mass destruction and global jihad”. Many weapons of mass destruction are less destructive than people assume, and the threat of global jihad appears to be waning, but threats to our communications networks, computing facilities, and data stores pale in comparisons to true WMD like nuclear weapons. Controlling the risk of nuclear attack remains will above cyber-security in sound ranking of strategic national priorities.”

…

“It is a common form of threat exaggeration to cite the raw numbers of attacks on sensitive networks, like the Department of Defense’s. It suffers hundreds of millions of attacks per year, But happily most of these ‘attacks’ are repetitious use of the same attack. They are mounted be ‘script kiddies’ – unsophisticated know-nothings who get copies of others’ attacks and run them on the chance that they will find an open door.”

He goes on to say in the same vein

“In his generally balanced speech on cyber-security, President Obama cited a threat he termed ‘weapons of mass disruption’. Again , analogy to the devastation that might be done by nuclear weapons is misleading. Inconvenience and disruption are bad things, they can be costly, and in the extreme case deadly—again, cyber-security is important—but securing against the use of real weapons on the US and its people is a more important government role.”

Basically Harper is saying that while the threat to cyberspace is real and can be a danger, it pales in comparison to other threats such as nuclear weapons and other WMD. Most likely, people are not going to die if the Internet gets a virus or data is lost. Someone brings in a nuclear bomb, people WILL die. Read the entire transcript here.

Taking the lost data and viruses a little further. As someone who has worked with data systems for quite a long time, data loss is a major pain the butt, but it is certainly not a show-stopper. Most systems do redundant backups on a daily basis. Viruses are being fought at all levels and most cyber security experts have been able to defeat these “bugs” before they get out of hand. If data is lost, or a virus does damage, the backups can be restored in a matter of days if not hours.

Taking a look at this from a different angle; who is going to be the final arbiter on when the Internet gets shut down? There is not going to be a judicial review so the President and the Sec DHS can act without any oversight. While this would mostly be a stretch, who would be able to stop them from shutting down the Internet if they feel they are personally under attack? What if someone with gobs of computing experience is able to upload a video on the President that is not flattering? If this video caused the people of the US to lose confidence in the President, would (s)he declare this a ‘national emergency’ and shut down YouTube? Unless the video was fabricated, then it should be protected under the First Amendment. With no court oversight the Constitution would be rendered useless.

I highly recommend that everyone read the book “1984” by George Orwell. In this book he spins a yarn about a society that has let itself be taken over by benevolent leaders who have basically said that they are smarter than the average citizen and we should make most decisions for you. We will tell you whether you can go to college, what area to study, and what type of job you should have. For years, the left has tried to portray the right as these benevolent leaders, but it is becoming increasingly clear the left is the one that thinks we are too stupid to govern ourselves.