The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010, proposed by Senators Joe Lieberman (Connecticut Independent), Susan Collins (Maine Republican), and Delaware's Tom Carper (Democrat) has been reworked for 2011, under the new name of the Cybersecurity and Internet Freedom Act. We really can not call it the internet kill switch bill anymore, as the new version of the proposed bill would specifically prohibit shutting down the Internet.
In 221 pages of the PDF file that I downloaded from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security website, I see endless pages of definitions, every term remotely connected to Cyber security painstakingly defined and referenced to other laws and agencies.
There is a new addition to the the bill from last year's version, clearly stating what it hopes to prohibit, "neither the President, the Director of the National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications, nor any other officer or employee of the Federal Government should have the authority to shut down the Internet."
The stated points on what the bill hopes to create include the establishment of an Office of under the Executive Office of the President, along with the creation of a Director of Cyberspace Policy, who shall be the head of the Office.
There is a laundry list of agencies the new Office of Cyberspace Policy needs to work with on the new Cyberspace Security Strategy. Specifically mentioned are the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce, the Department of State, the Department of Justice, the Department of Energy, and the intelligence community.
Later on down in the proposed bill, on page 16, there is this mention of the duty to "advise the Administrator of the Office of E-Government and Information Technology and the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs."
When reading the list of agencies that this new office is to communicate with, one that seemed apparently missing, is the Federal Communications Commission.
On page 17 I finally found some mention of telecommunications laws with the comments, "carry out the responsibilities for national security and emergency preparedness communications described in section 706 of the Communications Act of 1934."
The Communications Act of 1934 created the Federal Communication Commission, so it is still puzzling how this new office does not seem to be more directly connected to the FCC.
I never would have guessed when I started a career in technology many years ago that my love of political philosophy would become so intertwined with technology, as I try to understand and digest a piece of political legislation, the Cybersecurity and Internet Freedom Act of 2011. If only politics were as logical as technology.
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Recommended Reading:
Understanding the Questions Raised by Internet Regulation
Net Neutrality and Internet Security Off On Different Tangents
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