What would Marcus Yallow think of this? Under this legislation proposed by Senators Lieberman(I), Carper(D), and Collins(R), the president would be given authority to shut down parts of the internet in the case of national emergencies. It would also create a new agency under the Department of Homeland Security called the National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications. According to the report, "any private company company reliant on the Internet, the telephone system, or any other component of the U.S. information infrastructure would be subject to command by the NCCC." Some companies would also be required to engage in "information sharing". The internet is the defining technology of the past 20 years, and has changed the lives of most people. I personally gather a vast majority of my news from the internet, and I connect with friends and family through it as well. If some terrible event was happening, I would not want to be disconnected from that. I definitely wouldn't trust television news for gathering information on any serious situations.
It seems like there should be a better solution. Dr. Moeller discusses a story about building a newer, more secure internet in her blog post this week. This new internet would be also more restricted. I"m not really a tech person, but couldn't the "gated community" internet be used for government, military, and financial institutions, and the government could leave "our" internet alone? Isn't the Internet one of the most democratic institutions available?
No comments:
Post a Comment