US Government wants emergency internet powers

A leaked draft of the forthcoming cybersecurity bill has revealed a clause allowing government takeover of private and corporate networks “in the event of an immediate threat to strategic national interests.”

The bill would also require companies to set up a national disaster recovery plan and keep it updated, codify federal certification of cybersecurity officials, enforce regular network scanning and produce an annual report on progress.

The document reportedly comes from the office of Senator Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, who introduced the cybersecurity bill in April.

“As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I know the threats we face,” said Senator Rockefeller.

“Our enemies are real, they are sophisticated, they are determined and they will not rest. I believe Congress must bring new high-level governmental attention to develop a fully integrated, thoroughly coordinated, public-private partnership to our cybersecurity efforts in the 21st century.”

The news has already bought political attacks, with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a right wing US think tank warning against “the constant temptation by politicians in both parties to expand government authority over ‘critical’ private networks.”

“From American telecommunications to the power grid, virtually anything networked to some other computer is potentially fair game to Obama to exercise ‘emergency powers,” CEI director of Technology Studies Wayne Crews said today.

“Policy makers should be suspicious of proposals to collectivize and centralize cybersecurity risk management. The result is that we become less secure, not more secure.”

In Britain the government already has a kill-switch in all communications in the event of a national emergency, and has had so for many years. In the Cold War years plans were in place to shut down almost all telephone communication in an emergency, although public phone boxes were left on.

As communications technology has progressed this right has been integrated, so that mobile phones and network traffic can be cut quickly also, while leaving certain key connections on. This was confirmed in the 2004 Civil Contingencies Act.