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West Virginian Senator Jay Rockefeller is working on a bill that would give President Obama control over the Internet in the event of what he terms a “cybersecurity emergency.”  The bill would allow him to declare such an emergency and take control of private-sector networks.  It doesn’t however specify what would constitute such an event or why the president would need to control the Internet during one.  The bill, co-sponsored by Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, has been revised but ISPs and civil liberties groups are still deeply troubled by it.

“I think the redraft, while improved, remains troubling due to its vagueness,” said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, which counts representatives of Verizon, Verisign, Nortel, and Carnegie Mellon University on its board. “It is unclear what authority Sen. Rockefeller thinks is necessary over the private sector. Unless this is clarified, we cannot properly analyze, let alone support the bill.”

The bill also includes provisions for a federally run certification program for cybersecurity professionals and a mandate that certain private-sector networks and computer systems be run only by people who have obtained that certification.  It also directs the White House to do “periodic mapping” of networks classified as critical and for the companies running those networks to hand over certain information to the government.

While the government certainly must start taking cyber threats and security a lot more seriously, taking control over private networks should be the least of its concerns.  Right now they need to exercise a lot more control over their own, which have been hit by DDoS attacks in recent weeks.

President Obama himself admitted the government is not nearly as prepared for such events as it should be.  He promised to create a new cybersecurity coordinator position within the administration, but months later it still has not been filled.  It’s hard to understand why Sen. Rockefeller thinks the government should be able to take over private networks when it can’t even secure its own properly.

Read[CNet]