US senate considers internet “kill switch” bill

A new U.S. Senate bill, proposed by Senator Joseph Lieberman, would grant the president “far-reaching emergency powers to seize control of or even shut down portions of the Internet,” Internet information provider CNET reported.

The powers given to the government in the bill, officially titled “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act (PCNAA)”, have been described in the U.S. news media as an n internet “kill switch.”

The bill would give the president the authority to order private internet and telecommunication companies, such as "broadband providers, search engines, or software firms," to "immediately comply with any emergency measure or action" or face fines.

It would also see the creation of a new agency within the Department of Homeland Security, the National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC). Any private company reliant on "the Internet, the telephone system, or any other component of the U.S. 'information infrastructure'" would be "subject to command" by the NCCC, and some would be required to engage in "information sharing" with the agency, CBS4 reported.

U.S.-based technology lobby group TechAmerica criticized the bill, warning of the "potential for absolute power" and expressing reservations about the "unintended consequences that would result from the legislation's regulatory approach."

Liberman recently defended the PCNAA, saying it is necessary that the president had the power to "say to an electric company or to say to Verizon, in the national interest, 'There's an attack about to come, and I hereby order you to put a patch on this, or put your network down on this part, or stop accepting any incoming from country A.'"

He added that the bill is necessary for it would reduce the liability of companies that may need to resort to extreme measures in an emergency situation. Companies might have to "do things in a normal business sense you'd be hesitant to do but national security requires you to do," Lieberman explained, adding "We protect them from that because the action the government is ordering them to take is in national security or economic interest."

CNET notes an Internet "kill switch" has been proposed before:

A draft Senate proposal that CNET obtained in August allowed the White House to "declare a cybersecurity emergency," and another from Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) would have explicitly given the government the power to "order the disconnection" of certain networks or Web sites.