Let’s not give the President the power to control the internet

News of a (revised) bill giving the president the power to seize control of the internet came out on Friday. I went away with my family that day, and just didn’t have the chance to get to it before we took off. To call me distrustful of the current president and congress is an understatement, but still, I didn’t want to jump to conclusions. I do believe that cybersecurity is a big deal, and don’t want to allow ideology to get in the way of security. (You know, the way the left does.) I’m willing to keep an open mind.

One conclusion I was perfectly comfortable jumping to is that if this was proposed by republicans while Bush was president, the left and the media would have been in an uproar. That’s a given. But beyond that, the government really isn’t good at very much. So even if their intentions are completely benign, I tend to believe this bill is a bad idea, at least in its current form. The Washington Times looked at the bill and came to the same conclusion.

The Senate Commerce Committee wants to hand control of the Internet over to the Obama White House. Increased government intervention isn’t the answer to the nation’s cybersecurity problem.

A copy of revised legislation obtained by The Washington Times shows that committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia Democrat, and Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, Maine Republican, have heeded some warnings about their original bill. However, concrete steps aimed at ensuring more efficient cooperation between federal agencies and the private sector in the case of a cyber-attack remain absent.

As originally envisioned, the legislation would have established the Commerce Department as the main agency to deal with key private-sector players. Mr. Rockefeller and Ms. Snowe backed off that plan. However, instead of designating the Department of Homeland Security — which has a strong history with cyber-industries — as the main agency to coordinate the federal response, the new bill gives President Obama the ability to designate whichever agency he sees fit. The Obama White House has demonstrated that its internal politics limit its effectiveness in coordinating federal cyberpolicy from the top.

Obviously, the private sector has a vested interest in securing networks. Their very livelihood depends on it. The government, on the other hand, can always find a way to coerce its way out of any problem, even if it leads to further problems. Not to mention the the problem with granting the president the authority to declare a cybersecurity emergency.

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.”

I don’t like the idea of giving the president (especially this president) the power to declare a cybersecurity emergency so he can take control of private networks.

Every organization, government, or enterprise is made up of individual human beings. Most of us are not perfect, but in my opinion, individuals and organizations with a vested interest to get things right are more likely to do so than bureaucrats who keep their jobs no matter what the consequences.

Even if I didn’t believe that this would give the current Statist in Chief even more power over us, I would still oppose this power grab by the government.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 30th, 2009 at 10:55 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.