New Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act (PCNAA) Bill Could Gives President Obama Kill Switch To Shut Down The Internet

3/18/2010

Free speech has long been a hallmark of a healthy democracy and a free society. The Internet has become an unprecedented tool for individuals to express themselves and receive information, participate in political and democratic processes, and share knowledge and ideas. But, is the Internet about to get censored?

New cybersecurity legislation by Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Tom Carper (D-DE) proposes regulations that could potentially give the President far-reaching emergency authority to shut down portions of the Internet (a figurative “kill switch”) for national-security reasons.  Senator Lieberman is chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs and Senator Collins is the committee's ranking Republican.  Senator Lieberman has been pushing for government regulation of the Internet for years under the guise of cybersecurity.  The Lieberman-Collins-Carper bill, known as the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act (PCNAA), is the most comprehensive cybersecurity legislation introduced in this Congress.

There are few limits on the emergency powers granted to the President under the bill introduced in the Senate and moving quickly through Congress toward passage. The legislation has generated considerable buzz on tech blogs.  
The prospect of a vast new cybersecurity bureaucracy with power to command the private sector worries some privacy advocates.  TechAmerica said it was concerned about "unintended consequences that would result from the legislation's regulatory approach" and "the potential for absolute power".  The Center for Democracy and Technology publicly worried that emergency powers "include authority to shut down or limit internet traffic on private systems."

The bill would grant President Obama unusually broad power to declare a “national cyber-emergency” at his discretion and force private companies that "rely on" the Internet, the telephone system, or any other component of the US "information infrastructure" including Internet service providers, search engines, and software firms to take action in response.  That could include limiting or even cutting off their connections to the World Wide Web for up to 30 days.  Anyone failing to comply would be fined.

While the bill’s sponsors say it is intended to defend the United States and large US companies from the growing threat of cyberattacks, civil-liberties activists fear the bill could give the President the ability to effectively silence free speech under the pretext of a national emergency for reasons that could prove to be politically inspired.  The federal government has been searching for any avenue possible through which it can regulate alternative media outlets.

The bill would create a new powerful and extensive federal agency, the National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC), within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with a director who would require Senate confirmation, "no less" than two deputy directors, and liaison officers to the Defense Department, Justice Department, Commerce Department, and the Director of National Intelligence.

The National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications would work with private companies involved in “critical infrastructure”—a list including companies involved with electric grids, telecommunications networks, and the Internet—to come up with emergency measures in the event of a crisis.  Under the bill, the White House could demand that the emergency measures be put into place, including restrictions on their access to the Internet, if the President declared a national cyber-emergency.  
The NCCC also would be granted the power to monitor the "security status" of private sector websites, broadband providers, and other Internet components.  Selected private companies would be required to participate in "information sharing" with the Feds.

To sweeten the deal, the bill would grant immunity from civil suits to businesses for complying.  In the event of an "incident related to a cyber vulnerability," if the business has complied with federal standards, plaintiffs will be unable collect damages related to economic losses

Another bill from Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), S.773 - Cyber Security Act of 2009, would  explicitly give the government the power to "order the disconnection" of certain networks or websites.

While there good parts to the proposed PCNAA, such as opening communication channels between the private sector and the federal government and dissemination of threat information so that the private sector can modify their defensive posture, we cannot simply hand over control of the Internet to the Federal government.  The Lieberman bill needs to be strongly opposed in its current form.  Regulation of the Internet in this form would not only represent an assault on free speech, it would also create massive new bureaucracy andfurther devastate the economy.

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