Are you aware there has been a bill (tentatively the Cybersecurity Act of 2009) proposed that would allow the President of the United States to effectively shutdown Internet communications in the face of a cyber-emergency? Some points from this proposal include:
“America’s failure to protect cyberspace is one of the most urgent national security problems facing the country” (p.2, lines 11-12)
‘‘a successful cyber attack against a major financial service provider could severely impact the national economy, while cyber attacks against physical infrastructure computer systems such as those that control power grids or oil refineries have the potential to disrupt services for hours or weeks’’ ~ a prediction from the 2009 Annual Threat Assessment (p.3, lines 11-16)
“the United States is unprepared to respond to a ‘cyber-Katrina’” and
that ‘‘a massive cyber disruption could have a cascading, long-term impact without adequate co-ordination between government and the private sector’’ ~a statement by Paul Kurtz, Partner and COO of Good Harbor Consulting as well as a senior advisor to the Obama Transition Team for cybersecurity (p.4, lines 13-19)
“if the 9/11 attackers had chosen computers instead of airplanes as their weapons and had waged a massive assault on a U.S. bank, the economic consequences would have been ‘‘an order of magnitude greater’’ than those caused by the physical attack on the World Trade Center” ~Mike McConnell, the former Director of National Intelligence, told President Bush in May 2007, according to the National Journal (p. 6, 1-9)
‘‘every American depends—directly or indirectly—on our system of information networks. They are increasingly the backbone of our economy and our infrastructure; our national security and our personal well-being. But it’s no secret that terrorists could use our computer networks to deal us a crippling blow. We know that cyber-espionage and common crime is already on the rise.” and ‘‘we need to build the capacity to identify, isolate, and respond to any cyber-attack.’’ ~President Obama’s words from a speech at Purdue University on July 16, 2008 (p.7, lines 10-24)
This proposed bill concludes by calling for a “comprehensive national cybersecurity strategy” (p.43, line 22) in which the President “(2) may declare a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic to and from any compromised Federal government or United States critical infrastructure information system or network” (p.44, lines 6 – 9)
View the 51-page proposed bill at: http://cdt.org/security/CYBERSEC4.pdf
Related library materials:
Cavalier, R.J. (2005). The impact of the Internet on our moral lives. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Main Coll. Call number 303.4833 C376i
Schuler, D. and Day, P., eds. (2004). Shaping the network society: The new role of civil society in cyberspace. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Main Coll. Call number 303.4833 S386s
Franda, M.E. (2002). Launching into cyberspace: Internet development and politics in five world regions. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Main Coll. Call number 327.0285 F826L
Spinello, R.A. (2002). Regulating cyberspace: The policies and technologies of control. Westport, CT: Quorum Books.
Main Coll. Call number 303.4833 S757r
Mueller, M. (2002). Ruling the root: Internet governance and the taming of cyberspace. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Main Coll. Call number 004.678 M946r
