Lieberman and Collins Unveil Cyber Bill
Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me) unveiled a new cybersecurity bill yesterday along with Federal Financial Management Subcommittee Chairman Tom Carper (D-De). The legislation looks to strengthen, modernize and coordinate federal civilian networks and select private sector networks that are part of the critical infrastructure.
The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010, S.3480, would create a new office in the White House called the Office of Cyber Policy, whose director would be confirmed by the Senate. The Department of Homeland Security would also have a National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications, whose director would also be Senate confirmed. The office would enforce cyber policy in the government and private sector.
The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee intends to hold a hearing on the bill on June 15.
“The Internet may have started out as a communications oddity some 40 years ago but it is now a necessity of modern life, and sadly one that is under constant attack,” said Lieberman. “It must be secured, – and today, Senators Collins, Carper, and I have introduced a bill which we believe will do just that. The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010 is designed to bring together the disjointed efforts of multiple federal agencies and departments to prevent cyber theft, intrusions, and attacks across the federal government and the private sector. The bill would establish a clear organizational structure to lead federal efforts in safeguarding cyber networks. And it would build a public/private partnership to increase the preparedness and resiliency of those private critical infrastructure cyber networks upon which our way of life depends.”
Lieberman also said the Internet is a dangerous place with new risks from new enemies.
“For all of its ‘user-friendly’ allure, the Internet can also be a dangerous place with electronic pipelines that run directly into everything from our personal bank accounts to key infrastructure to government and industrial secrets,” he said. ” Our economic security, national security and public safety are now all at risk from new kinds of enemies — cyber-warriors, cyber-spies, cyber-terrorists and cyber-criminals.”
The bill would also update the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and would require critical infrastructure to report significant data breaches to DHS. Additionally, the bill would require OPM to change the way cyber professionals are recruited and retained by the government.
“For too long, our approach to cyber security has been disjointed and uncoordinated. Our vital legislation would fortify the government’s efforts to safeguard America’s cyber networks from attack,” Collins said. “This bill would build a public/private partnership to promote national cyber security priorities and help prevent and respond to cyber attacks.”
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To clarify, he Internet largely consists of routers and communication links. So in this question of whether the government should have the power to control the Internet, I asked “Doesn’t the government already own the Internet and, if not, who does own the Internet?”
The answer clearly is whomever owns the routers and communications links, owns the Internet. The answer came from Bill Cheswick, the chief scientist at Lumeta a network intelligence company, who started toying around with a way to map the Internet when he worked at Bell Labs in the late 1990s and Ben Worthen of CIO.com. The routers and communications links are owned by Verizon, AT&T, Qwest, some cable companies and other private interests whose routers are a part of the Internet (See map of Internet routers at http://advice.cio.com/themes/CIO.com/cache/Internet_map_labels_0.pdf). Essentially, the Internet is privately owned. Admittedly, some of the owners are operating a public utility, such as a phone company, but to date, the Internet has not been established as a public utility and that would be difficult to do, since a significant part of the Internet world-wide is not owned by American interests.
So does the government have the right to seize and control the Internet? In the last two years, this administration has seized and controlled over 60% of the American economy, including banking, health insurance, health care and the auto industry, with more controls attempting to make their way through Congress as I write. So should this attempt to seize and control the Internet surprise us?
Clearly the attempt to seize and control private industry shouldn’t surprise us if it came from this administration but this actually comes from Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn), and Susan Collins (R-Me),
We know that (R-Me) is a euphemism from RINO from Maine and apart from “Independent”, I think we all know what the “ID” represents with respect to Joe Lieberman. They’ve both been lapdogs of this administration, so, no, the attempt at seizing of more of private industry, by these people also shouldn’t surprise us but does the government have the right?
Shouldn’t the government, in accordance with the 5th Amendment (“…nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation”), have to provide just compensation for taking control of the Internet? If that does happen and the Internet becomes public property, who is going to provide the funds for that compensation? YOU, the taxpayer!
That raises yet another question that if the industry decides to create a second system, apart from this government-run Internet, will it be free from government seizure?