What's up with all this Cyber-war fear mongering?

[TheBlackPeterSchiff]

Everywhere I see talk from the govt warning about the "dangers of the internet and hackers" and how they could "shut down the nation economy and infrastructure" and so on. Its almost like the build up to the Iraq war. Are they preparing us for something? Are they planning on "shutting the internet down" for some strange reason? What's the end game? :confused:

[Omphfullas Zamboni]

http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2010/06/no-kill-switch-in-lieberman-co.php

This article explains things, nicely. It includes quotations from the proposed legislation, as well.

[awake]

There will be an 'event' to help slide this through.

[tangent4ronpaul]

It's not about terrorism, it's about control. They have tried to sell this for years - to protect us from scams, for the safety of the children, hell - they tried to make the entire Internet "G" rated a few years ago, to protect financial transactions, to protect critical infrastructure, to protect companies from cyber espionage, etc, etc...

Always a different pretext, always the same solution. Actually doing something about the pretext is never the goal, the solution is always the goal.

-t

[Omphfullas Zamboni]

Section 249 of the bill contains the material regarding powers during a "cyber emergency." Here's what the bill actually contains, according to the official summary:

Section 249: If the President determines there is a credible threat to exploit cyber vulnerabilities of the covered critical infrastructure, the President may declare a national cyber emergency, with notification to Congress and owners and operators of affected covered critical infrastructure. The notification must include the nature of the threat, the reason existing security measures are deficient, and the proposed emergency measures needed to address the threat. If the President exercises this authority, the Director of the NCCC will issue emergency measures necessary to preserve the reliable operation of covered critical infrastructure. Any emergency measures issued under this section will expire after 30 days unless the Director of the NCCC or the President affirms in writing that the threat still exists or the measures are still needed. Emergency measures imposed by the Director must be the least disruptive means feasible, and such emergency measures cannot be used to set aside the requirements of the Wiretap Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. This section does not authorize any new surveillance authorities or permit the government to "take over" private networks. While complying with the mandatory emergency measures, owners and operators of covered critical infrastructure will have the flexibility to propose alternative security measures that address the national cyber emergency and, once approved by the Director, implement those security measures in lieu of the original mandatory emergency measures. Owners and operators of covered critical infrastructure who comply with the requirements can in certain circumstances receive liability protections that range from limitations on some damages to immunity from suit.

The Director will also work with owner and operators of covered critical infrastructure outside the United States to inform them of cyber threats and vulnerabilities and appropriate security measures.

[Kotin]

Wasn't the Patriot Act written well before 9/11??


Motherfuckers

[tangent4ronpaul]

What they are using to sell this BS is primarily threats to SCADA systems. They are not supposed to be accessible on the Internet, but people being lazy don't want to be woken up at 3am and go in to fix whatever their pager is bitching about, so they connect systems to the Internet or to a modem...

Consider:
most retail stores do ordering via the Internet - like grocery stores...
A friend of mine does IT for a bank. Guess how all transactions are approved, be they via a teller or ATM - the Internet.
Congress mandated a "smart grid" that uses SCADA and the Internet (exactly what you are NOT supposed to do with SCADA systems) to control gas and electricity and had retrofitted 70 Million homes so far, at our expense so far.
If a worm comes in and starts to infect the net, shutting it down will delay it, not stop it.
It provides a very powerful weapon for those that wish do do us harm, or influence an election at a critical time. Just create a situation that will cause this to trigger and the government will attack the country / economy via the kill switch.

This isn't an Internet kill switch, it's an economy kill switch! Reboot country (y/n?)

-t