Senators Jay Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe have redrafted a bill they had introduced in April which would give the Federal Government authority to shut down the internet in times of national emergency, and the changes to the bill are only cosmetic with the wording being written in language which is more difficult to decipher.

This page is reprinted here as part of the article A Summary of Long Term Globalist Establishment Agendas of the Global Elite.


Cybersecurity Act Returns With a Fresh Coat of Paint

by Richard Esguerra
The Electronic Frontier Foundation

September 2, 2009


In April, we voiced serious concerns about the Cybersecurity Act of 2009, a bill by Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), that sought to give the federal government unprecedented power over the Internet.  For months, the bill has been redrafted behind closed doors and has recently been circulated, but by all accounts, the changes are cosmetic and it’s sadly more of the same.

Like the original bill, the new version appears to give the President carte blanche to decide which networks and systems, private or public, count as “critical infrastructure information systems or networks.”  And alongside that authority, there still appears to be murky language that would permit the President to shut down the Internet.  Note the troubling provision in the original bill, which said:



The new bill says:



In other words, they appear to have packaged Presidential authority to shut down the Internet and other private networks behind a ribbon of red tape, and the words “national response.”

In addition, a CNET article by Declan McCullagh indicates that many of the early concerns about privacy, authority, and security effectiveness have gone unsolved: there is vague language about mapping federal and private networks; there is an unexplained scheme to certify cybersecurity professionals at the federal level; and the mandated implementation of a “cybersecurity strategy” before the completion of a legal review that could protect against inadvertent privacy violations or inefficiency.

Despite the many questionable provisions, the bill may snake its way through the lawmaking process by virtue of having been produced in large part by Sen. Rockefeller, who is chairman of the committee in charge of reviewing and approving the bill.  Stay tuned to EFF Deeplinks for news as the bill progresses -- we’ll be watching it carefully.