The Proposed Federalization of the Computer Security Field

[Angel Heart]

The Proposed Federalization of the Computer Security Field

The Proposed Federalization of the Computer Security Field
By Larry Seltzer
2009-04-02

Proposed legislation would put authority over the security of government and private networks in the hands of officials reporting to the President.


President Obama promised in his campaign to take cybersecurity seriously and he appears to be following up on that promise. Legislation just introduced in the Senate, written with White House input according to the Washington Post, would federalize the business of computer security. It would give White House officials the power to shut off private networks, decide what products could be used for security and set rules for who could practice computer security.

The legislation is actually in two bills, S.773 and S.778. The titles of the bills are:

S.773—A bill to ensure the continued free flow of commerce within the United States and with its global trading partners through secure cyber communications, to provide for the continued development and exploitation of the Internet and intranet communications for such purposes, to provide for the development of a cadre of information technology specialists to improve and maintain effective cybersecurity defenses against disruption, and for other purposes.
and
S.778—A bill to establish, within the Executive Office of the President, the Office of National Cybersecurity Advisor.
I couldn't find the actual text of the legislation yet, but there is a short PDF describing it in press release language. Of course such documents are no substitute for examining the actual text.

The emphasis of the opening parts of the press release is on matters about which there is little dispute: government and critical private infrastructure networks need to be protected. It asserts that they are vulnerable and that a new public-private partnership is necessary to address the problem. The advisor created by S.778 would report directly to the president and, according to the press release, would have "...the authority to disconnect a Federal or critical infrastructure network from the Internet if they are found to be at risk of cyber attack."

More...

 

[Angel Heart]

1984

 

[KittenKoder]

Great ... sounds like Obama is in Microsucks pockets to.

 

[Angel Heart]

Yup... Time to call our Senators and make sure these bills are killed.

Or the internet will be effected by it.

 

[KittenKoder]

Yup... Time to call our Senators and make sure these bills are killed.

Or the internet will be effected by it.

Not really, only parts of it will be effected by it ultimately, but our major ISPs will, and that will suck big time. If it does manage to somehow get passed then I will just have to start my own ISP (blech I hate the idea of being a 'boss') and find a way to avoid it. There is no way I am re-installing Windoze on my beautiful machine just because someone else thinks it's better.

 

[KittenKoder]

Oh, bad enough they have no technical support for Linus as it is on Qwest, had to figure it all out myself (only took an hour but meh) because their modems are designed so they have to be configured through their software, which is only Windoze. Called up their techs and all I got was "I dunno".