Nose vs. Face

I understand the dire threat that cyber attack is to American security. So Senator Lieberman's Internet Kill Switch bill is making its way through channels, having passed from committee last week. Whether or not the bill is actually a kill switch, or a prohibition on using a kill switch unless absolutely necessary, commentators quote the Communications Act of 1934 as already giving POTUS to power to shut down "wire communications" at will.

 

The problem with this line of reasoning of course is that the Internet is a lot more than "wire communications." No one is performing bank functions over AM radio. No one is providing medical care and records over the TV network. But these and more go on every minute over the Internet.

 

Closing the Internet to fend off cyber attack is analgous to blowing up a building to prevent its being bombed, or closing a department store to stave off shoplifting, or cutting off the nose to spite the face. If the mere threat of cyber attack will shut down the Internet, then cyber terrorism just got a whole lot easier. Who needs to hire thirteen-year-old wunderkinder in Pakistan when a few well placed emails will acomplish the same ends.

 

And can you imagine what the outcry would have been if the Bush Administration had proposed this, rather than the current one? Wait a minute. Didn't they?