"Rook" has some thoughts on proposed legislation regulating the Internet. "
"I seriously doubt that Senators Lieberman and Collins understand the internet at all. Yet in their lawyerly arrogance they presume to write laws governing it. The excuse they are using is that hackers could wreak havoc with our infrastructure in case of a national emergency.
"If they were serious, and if they had even an elementary understanding of the design and the history of the internet, the law they would propose would be one that specifically instructs the operators of key infrastructure elements to disconnect their local area networksfrom the internet. They would write their proposed laws in view of answers to questions such as:
"* Why must any of the following be connected to the internet?
hospital
power distribution station
power generation plant
gas and oil pipeline
water pumping station
dam
police station
military base
"* What part of their operation must be safeguarded from access?
patient / customer records
security protocols
surveillance cameras
physical control of machinery (HVAC, pumps, switches, etc.)
physical control of doors and gates
communications with off-site personnel
communications with other agencies and facilities
"The real answer is that none of these things are public facilities and there is no good reason why any of these things should be accessible from the outside. There is no engineering reason why each facility should not be limited to its own local area network, with no physical connection to the outside. Without a physical connection -- wired or wireless -- there is no way an intruder can gain access. The only way anyone could gain unauthorized access would be by 1920's style wire-tapping, which is difficult to do and easy to detect and remedy. And if the facility has on-site power generators, they will stay up even if the rest of the world goes down.
"On the other hand, commercial and social sites do have a legitimate reason to be connected to the internet at all times, but their relative importance, and therefore their need for security or immunity to hacker attacks, do not rise to the level of those of infrastructure, utilities, defense and public safety agencies.
"The two systems (infrastructure/security and email/commercial) could be on completely separate networks, just as they were before the www part of the internet was opened to the public. Indeed about a year ago there was talk of building a separate "internet 2" or "www2" specifically for government use only, but then the story line went quiet.
"But by deliberately ignoring the details and writing blanket rules, the proponents of this legislation are once again advancing the agenda to put in place the tools of totalitarian control over a nation supposedly based on and dedicated to individual freedoms guaranteed by theConstitution. (PLEASE do not make the argument that our freedom of travel is limited to walking, and our freedom of communication is limited to writing letters... The Constitution is not a contract to restrict us to the technology of the 1700's)."
Despots pull the plug on the Internet. I guess we're going to follow in their footsteps.
Posted by: Franklin | February 02, 2011 at 07:23 PM