Obama's Internet Kill Switch

[TarJak]

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sec...0625-z8sf.html

Who who here thinks this is a good idea?

[GoldenRivet]

Extraordinarily bad idea...

Americans however... as a whole, will continue to roll over and gladly take it up the arse as long as they can get their big screens, big macs and big cars

100 years ago there would have been a war.

[Betonov]

so if americans shut down their internet, the rest of the world looses connection to their servers
so everytime Obama gets twitchy it's likely I'll fail my exams because I wouldn't be able to get to information I need

[GoldenRivet]

The US government has way outgrown it's shorts. this is getting out of hand.

[Betonov]

"Only specific systems or assets whose disruption would cause a national or regional catastrophe would be subject to the bill's mandatory security requirements," the senators wrote.

oops, I guess this answers my question

[tomfon]

The article says that the US President already has authority under the Communications Act to close any facility or station for wire communication...

This additional "kill switch" would enable him to shut down everything at no time. Why? Is he afraid of a coup d' état?

[Castout]

Originally Posted by Betonov

so if americans shut down their internet, the rest of the world looses connection to their servers
so everytime Obama gets twitchy it's likely I'll fail my exams because I wouldn't be able to get to information I need

Yes I believe that's one of the privilege of becoming superpower and right now the only one world's superpower.

Originally Posted by tomfon

The article says that the US President already has authority under the Communications Act to close any facility or station for wire communication...

This additional "kill switch" would enable him to shut down everything at no time. Why? Is he afraid of a coup d' état?

It's meant to safeguard US from cyber warfare.
Every rule comes with good intention to gain legitimacy and public support but in practice men are known to have abused their own made rule.

Heck we ordinary people don't even know for sure if a rogue government agency or hacker is spying on us. The Chinese hackers got into US electrical grid system and they spied on activists. God knows what other government is doing similar things.

In 2008 alone I reinstalled XP on my machine sometimes every week or two. It was bad. In total that year I probably reinstalled my operating system 15 or more times. I kept getting BSOD and no it wasn't hardware fault. I switched to Vista and the same thing kept happening so many that I cracked my Vista DVD.

Since Sunday I keep getting problems too on my computer. Reboot, blackscreen, BIOS hang and BSOD. It was three times on Sunday and twice today.
Ran AV and it was all fine. Ran memory diagnostics and it was all fine too.

Not saying it was definitely hacker attack but that's a real possibility considering I'm an activist. They sent cyber bullies with insults on one forum to get rid of me and I'm sure they are going to try something to keep me from writing my blog or simply to aggravate and frustrate me. In effect I'm becoming a bit paranoid since I always can't be sure whether it was them or not.

[Betonov]

It's meant to safeguard US from cyber warfare.
Every rule comes with good intention to gain legitimacy and public support but in practice men are known to have abused their own made rule.

the road to hell is paved with good intentions

[tomfon]

@Castout

I'm not a US citizen but i hope that this law won't turn against you. BTW i didn't know that Chinese hackers spend their time harassing US citizens.

[Castout]

Originally Posted by tomfon

@Castout

I'm not a US citizen but i hope that this law won't turn against you. BTW i didn't know that Chinese hackers spend their time harassing US citizens.

Yea me too hoping the same though I can't see a reason why any US agency let alone Obama would want to shut my access to internet

And well I'm no US citizen but have read news that the Chinese planted some rogue programs into the US electrical grid system compromising the system in the event of war.

It was also reported that Chinese hackers presumably acting on the Chinese govt behalf implanted spying programs into the personal computer of activists(their political dissidents)

Cyber warfare is indeed a real threat.

[Sailor Steve]

I think it's a great idea! I'm all for it! In fact with this they could

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."
-Thomas Jefferson

That was Jefferson's observation, not his wish. This is a terrible move. It seems that the politicians always want more government and less freedom.

In those days papers were printed by highly opinionated private men, and expressed whatever opinions they had, not just on the op-ed pages; very much like the internet today.

Here is what Jefferson thought of that:

"The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them."

-Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787.

Originally Posted by Betonov

the road to hell is paved with good intentions

Amen, brother!

[conus00]

Jefferson must be turning in his grave...

Originally Posted by tomfon

Why? Is he afraid of a coup d' état?

It would appear so.

[Wolfehunter]

I'm not surprised.

[Wolfehunter]

Originally Posted by Castout

Yea me too hoping the same though I can't see a reason why any US agency let alone Obama would want to shut my access to internet

And well I'm no US citizen but have read news that the Chinese planted some rogue programs into the US electrical grid system compromising the system in the event of war.

It was also reported that Chinese hackers presumably acting on the Chinese govt behalf implanted spying programs into the personal computer of activists(their political dissidents)

Cyber warfare is indeed a real threat.

So hire hackers to fight back. Cyber war has been going on for a while now. No excuses for goverments to be cheap about it. Help kids here have freedom to express hacking and cracking. This way you can find the talents and give them a job to protect the nation. Business too have to stop being cheap. There is a war out there. Time to wake up.