"Kill Switch" Legislation.

Given the recent interruption in internet service in Egypt, and our recent discussion on the dread “Kill Switch”, the following may be on interest to you.  This is the nuts and bolts, as I understand them, of the most recent U.S. government attempt at “National Cyber-Security.” 

On December 15, 2010 Senator Joe Lieberman sponsored S. 3480 entitled, “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset of 2010.”  This suggested amendment to the Homeland Security Act of 2002 would create an Office of Cyberspace Policy under the Executive Office and within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  This office would be charged with developing policy and strategies to increase the security of the internet, oversee and coordinate among the many federal agencies in the security of the internet, ensure compliance, and enforce policy.   Additionally, the act would create the National Center for Cyber-security and Communications (NCCC).  The NCCC would operate under the DHS to coordinate private sector and government internet security plans and protect the national internet infrastructure.  It would also transfer the Office of Emergency Communications and the National Communications System from the Office of infrastructure Protection to the NCCC.  The NCCC director is also supposed to develop guidelines to protect the privacy and civil liberties of U.S. persons and intelligence sources and methods.

Far more startling than the proposed shuffling of acronyms ad nauseum, is the creation of the internet “Kill Switch”.  Essentially, the President when advised by the directors of the NCCC and the DHS, could declare a “national cyber emergency.”  The President is then required to notify the owners and operators of internet infrastructure (private ISPs) of the nature of the emergency, after the notification the NCCC director would begin immediately directing the owners and operators of private ISPs to implement planed protective measures (shut downs).  The shutdowns could in theory be limited in scope to contain or prevent a local or regional “emergency”.  The sunset on the “emergency order” issued by the President would be 30 days, with 30 day extensions of the order authorized to the director of the NCCC.