U.S. Government Proposes "Internet Kill Switch"

[DRTJR]

That would be an immense amount of power in a single button along with the fact that it's international thing not just America

 

[Marsell]

Facepalm
only in america

 

[Kwaren]

If my internet was shut of my the government I would be grabbing my pitchfork and torch to be sure!

 

[tkioz]

and people say us Australian's have it bad with that filter no-body wants, at least they aren't talking about giving someone discretionary power to shut down huge chunks of the 'net.

So much for the land of the free and all that jazz.

 

[BloodyThoughts]

Fuck...
The US Government.
Just...
No. This is stupidity beyond stupidity. Is there ever even a time where the Internet would have to be shut off, or it just them slapping us in the face with their massive cocks, while laughing at us?

And like Jack and Calumon said, would there be any warning, or would it just be "Ha Ha! We are shutting off your precious internet noobsz! Go outside! HA!!!!1!!!!1111!!!!!!!!!!ONEONE!!!"?

 

[Ph33nix]

CIA probably already has 2

 

[Double A]

Oh great. This could easily be solved by pulling the plug on their own servers. I don't see why I can't use the web even though some terrorist is hacking into the national database. If it's electronical, there's a plug to it. Or batteries. But either way, you can shut it off without having to screw with the rest of us.

HA! Loving the mocking, Mr. Chalk. Cyber-this and Cyber-that

Mr. Government,
[/i]You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means[/i]

OT: Is this just for the US? Cus I'm questioning why they would have any right to turn off British internet, considering A) They HAVE no right and B) We technically invented it

Al Gore's gonna sue you so bad now.

 

[Arthious]

I think they should pass the bill. That way 4Chan can hijack it and take its rightful place as our internet overlords!!

 

[AMMO Kid]

That makes me laugh

 

[Shynobee]

snip

I think what Congress is trying to do is have the option for the ultimate final dam, as it were.

If some aspect of the government's internet security was compromised, and every conventional measure had been attempted, they want to be able to fall back on this if they have to.

 

[SD-Fiend]

Wait.... What? A kill switch? Would there be warning beforehand or would we just be told "We're Turning off your Internetz! HA!"

Actually, part of me hopes they don't give out a warning, like if someone is watching a *Ahem* certain Genre of video and just as it actually starts doing what *ahem* it promises... BOOM! You have no internet!

Calumon: I hope this doesn't catch on.

you should hope so Caluamon your a digimon so well...

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

This will cause lots of Suicides... and job opportunities as well...

 

[swolf]

Ofcourse because when people are panicing having no internet will make it better.

Yeah, also, I wonder what would happen afterwards. Say that the gov't decided to go completely loco and start attacking the citizens. I know that's unlikely but hear me out. We wouldn't really be able to cry out for help from foreign countries or even inform them the way that those citizens in the middle east show what is happening to them for fighting over voting. It seems unsafe. (Yeah, I realize many of you wouldn't care.)

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

HA! Loving the mocking, Mr. Chalk. Cyber-this and Cyber-that

Mr. Government,
[/i]You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means[/i]

OT: Is this just for the US? Cus I'm questioning why they would have any right to turn off British internet, considering A) They HAVE no right and B) We technically invented it

Al Gore is American, not British. =P

 

[James Hueick]

Hey America; how about you not do some stupid ass-shit for a while... okay?

 

[Danpascooch]

It wouldn't be as impossible as you claim it to be if the major ISP's were forced to have a last resort kill switch. After all, anyone who wants to connect to the internet (don't split hairs, I mean 99.9% of everyone) requires an ISP, without that ISP they cannot connect to the internet. ISP's can shut off a persons internet service if they don't pay their bill, so creating a "switch" that shuts off everyone's (everyone THEY provide internet to anyway) internet service would not be inconceivable.

It's not splitting hairs. That 0.1% of connections that are not through an ISP are exactly the connections that would be used by a foreign cyber-warfare unit that this bill is intended to defend against.

EDIT:

I don't think this is a good idea, but it's not the insanity that everyone claims it to be. I think ISP's should be forced to have kill switches for some sites they provide access to, such as online banking sites and sites holding medical records, could you imagine if somebody found a major vulnerability in a very important internet website?

Maybe those more critial websites could disconnect or filter themselves if neccessary, rather than relying on ISPs to forbid connecting to them?

Filtering at the ISP level would be very easy to defeat using a proxy. And of course would only defend against domestic terrorists/criminals.

The thing about proxies, is that you need to connect to a proxy server using your internet service in order to start using it, if your internet provider cuts off your service at the source, a proxy isn't going to do shit.

And yes, a kill switch would NOT block the attackers, but when it takes banks, records, and civilians offline, who will they attack? There is no way to cut a determined cyber-criminal who knows a security vulnerability off, so the next best thing is to be prepared to isolate them from all of their victims (by kill switch) as a last resort in case of an absolute security disaster.

 

[Danpascooch]

Fuck Liebermen and fuck Obama in short. Isn't this sort of like something Nazis would do, cut off part of the country so that the other part doesn't know that while the Nazis are taking over half the land its planning on doing the other half next.

They didn't cut off or censor anything or claim they would do so, it's a proposal for a last resort security measure.

"Fuck" your liberal use of the "fuck" aimed at Obama who did NOT propose or sign this bill into law. In short "fuck" your ignorance and bigotry, and "fuck" your impolite attacks at a person who is not a party to the action you are complaining about.

Freedom of speech is a ***** but still a freedom (at this point) and I can point my anger and aggression to anyone I feel it is deserved thank you, so again fuck O-B-A-M-A and fuck Y-O-U. =D

P.S. I did not propose that Obama proposed or signed this bill into law, I just hate him as much as I do Lieberman.

Funny you should mention freedom of speech, because you USED that freedom when you spewed the idiotic fallacy that "America loves to take away freedoms" irony much?

Another thing about freedom of speech, it won't protect you from Escapist moderator wrath, the kind of wrath summoned when you say "fuck you" to another user

Lastly, I don't believe for a second you weren't blaming Obama when you posted that, your little "ps" is basically a "Whoops, somebody just proved I have no idea what I'm talking about, better pretend I meant something else"

I don't like cigarettes either, but I didn't enter this thread saying "Screw Lieberman and screw cigarettes!" why? Because that would be stupid and illogical

 

[Stone Wera]

So what? The internet will be down, big deal. We can live without the internet.

 

[Danpascooch]

Why are people acting as if by proposing a last resort, temporary security measure, that Lieberman is trying to destroy the internet, and has already succeeded?

 

[UnusualStranger]

Why are people acting as if by proposing a last resort, temporary security measure, that Lieberman is trying to destroy the internet, and has already succeeded?

The thing about emergency actions that give someone a hell of a lot of power is quite the problem, even if it was simply just proposed.

This is no small matter, as what exactly is accomplished by having a "kill switch" for all the internet? What exactly is saved by shutting it all down?

If we were to come under "cyber attack" what exactly would shutting down the internet do? You can't find your attacker by closing all the doors in your house. When you finally decide to open one again, the attacker will just go through that.


The reason everyone is so up in arms over this sort of thing is that proposing giving someone absolute power over something is not liked at all, because absolute power cannot be questioned.