[ISN] Senate committee approves controversial cybersecurity bill

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9178498/Senate_committee_approves_controversial_cybersecurity_bill

By Grant Gross
IDG News Service
June 24, 2010

A U.S. Senate committee has approved a wide-ranging cybersecurity bill 
that some critics have suggested would give the U.S. president the 
authority to shut down parts of the Internet during a cyberattack.

Senator Joe Lieberman and other bill sponsors have refuted the charges 
that the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act gives the 
president an Internet "kill switch." Instead, the bill puts limits on 
the powers the president already has to cause "the closing of any 
facility or stations for wire communication" in a time of war, as 
described in the Communications Act of 1934, they said in a breakdown of 
the bill published on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs Committee Web site.

The committee unanimously approved an amended version of the legislation 
by voice vote Thursday, a committee spokeswoman said. The bill next 
moves to the Senate floor for a vote, which has not yet been scheduled.

The bill, introduced earlier this month, would establish a White House 
Office for Cyberspace Policy and a National Center for Cybersecurity and 
Communications, which would work with private U.S. companies to create 
cybersecurity requirements for the electrical grid, telecommunications 
networks and other critical infrastructure.

[...]


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