Denial of Service
By Amit Singh | Saturday, August 29th, 2009 | PolicyBehind closed doors, Senators Rockefeller (D-WV) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) have been drafting a cyber-security bill which would allow the President to seize control of private sector networks during an emergency. If a company is deemed critical, the government can restrict who the company can hire, force the company to disclose information and have control over the company’s computers.
So under what circumstances would the President exercise this power? A computer virus? A terrorist attack? An election?
Why not let the companies with the most to lose figure out how to protect themselves? I think the engineers at Google, Microsoft and Amazon are pretty smart and don’t need help from the Feds.
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Amit Singh
I'm left handed but right brained.
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4 Responses to "Denial of Service"
Like the geniuses at Citi? AIG? Leman? etc., etc., etc, – the private sector needs help from the feds every day – putting the private sector – or the government – on a pedestal doesn’t serve our country. We need both – and yes we absolutely do need to put the power in the hands of the government to determine if and when private sector networks are under attack.
BTW, in case you didn’t know, the internet wasn’t an invention of the private sector – it was the Department of Defense, you know, that pesky government you don’t want to give any credit to.
I give the federal government plenty of credit. For keeping bad businesses alive and punishing good ones. Google was created from the Creative Destruction of the dot.bombs of the late 90’s. That’s how the Free Market works. There is constant evolution of improvement at the expense of those who cannot keep up. In the end, the bar is raised for everyone with better and cheaper goods and services.
I am unclear as to how and what the govt would do to prevent cyber-attacks. And yes this is the same Dept of Defense that is unable to protect our nuclear technology.
Here’s a little secret: Reagan was wrong. The private sector is not the answer to all of lifes problems – if it was Somalia would be the greatest nation on earth – it;s got the insane right’s twin dreams of no laws and no government. Yet, it just isn’t working out. Maybe if everyone in Somalia just had a gun, it would have to be a Dick Cheney/ NRA wet-dream, right? (maybe throw in a little torture too…) – afterall that’s all we need to stop crime… right?
If you don’t want any government you’ve got Somalia – so yes, government IS the answer sometimes. But, if you’ve got too much government and no private industry you’ve got the Soviet Union. Which was stable, but not so happy. Hmmmm – maybe the answer is something in the middle like… wait for it… what we have.
Just curious do you REALLY think that Google and every other successful American company would have survived in a law-free, government-free anarchy? Didn’t think so. So, what exactly ARE you arguing?
Mark, another misconception of the Free Market is that there are no laws which is probably why you incorrectly raise Somalia as an example. there is a role of govt which is essentially to protect property. the example above is actually related to that role but what I am expressing is the concern of overstepping the duties of the govt to gain control of information, etc they should not have.
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