What Do You Think About An “Emergency Off Switch” For The Internet?

No. I don't favor it. That is not what the Internet i about. It would be a perversion of it as Egypt just showed......

First off, I doubt it would be possible for one country to actually "shut off" the entire internet. There's just too many servers in too many places. I don't think it would even be feasible for a country the size of the US to take itself off of the internet for any length of time. Egypt was sort of able to do it for a day or so... but I could not see anything bigger being quite so successful. And in the long term, people could very easily figure out ways around it, or ISPs could just refuse to cooperate. Plus, the government and especially the defense dept. aren't really that technologically capable.

Even if by some small miracle they were able to pull it off, cutting off everyone in the US from the internet seems a rather overzealous response to a "cyberattack". While it would make sense for critical industries and organizations like power companies and government agencies to have individual "lock-down" systems that isolate themselves from the internet if they are being hacked, the only real use for a system that would cut off the public from the internet would be to keep people from organizing protests/resistance or learning some piece of information that would turn them against the government. The fact that Joe Liebermann apparently thinks such information exists and/or that the US is going to be subjected to a civil war in the near future makes me question his ability to represent people in a legislative body.

I think you give too much credit to Liebermann, personally. That's one hell of a conspiracy theory. Not to say it couldn't be true, but as I said, you give Liebermann too much credit. I have lived in CT my whole life. He's an idiot. He barely even knows what the internet is. I think he actually does want it to prevent cyber crimes. But he's not doing because of some sinister plan, or paranoid reaction. It's because he doesn't know better.

I think it should be left up to the individual and I already have one...it's the power switch on my router.

As for that draft dodging asswipe Lieberman, well you really don't need my opinion.

It just reaffirms my belief that government needs to stay away from the internet.

It's stuff like this that makes me angry. It seems like the government just wants to take more and more freedoms away from us. This is a trend that usually doesn't end well.....

People shouldn't be afraid of their government......The government should be afraid of the people.

At some point in time those that are in 'Power' will always look for a way to stop the cross feed of information, news, whatever.  It's 1984 all over again.  George Orwell did send us a message, did you read it? 

I agree that the Egyptian model was a power play/bunker type response. How about a cyber-attack on DoD/Military Communications/first reponders?

Who could/should throw in extraordinary protective systems until the attacker is located and dealt with?

Perhaps not the government...but if not, then who?

The idea wasn't to anger anyone, rather to encourage free discussion among intelligent people [or at least those who can type]....

The government is sworn "to protect against enemies domestic and foreign".... certainly not to take something away from you...

I don't think either the government or the people should be afraid of each other... there should be respect, and after all...the government should be the people. No?

I did, Philly.

With all the important things going on Senator Joe Lieberman has the time to think about something like this and doesn’t even know if it’s possible to do. With the tens or hundreds of thousands of cable companies available in the US I’m sure they are all already capable of shutting down their systems to home, business, and anywhere else they supply. So where does it stop? How about your television, Radio, etc. Maybe we just need bills to shut down the entire United States and go one more step and shut down the world. If there were to be this kind of attack do you think who ever does this would really care about you little computer? They would either try to shut everything down 100% or more likely try to go after Government agencies, financial institutions, and those types of systems. So if there was a cyber-attack maybe the normal user would be left alone and we may still be able to filter some information to use and find out what is going on. So am I in favor of it, No. Am I worried about it, No. So many other things that could wipe us all out totally and if a cyber-attack would happen we would still be here and the powers would figure things out, hopefully. So keep everything backed up and if it ever happened and things get back to normal just reformat and load your back up in. Ready to go again all fresh and new and get back on the WC.

I heard on the news this morning. Legislation approved our MTS internet providers ability to charge by downloads consumed.

Right now it's a flat rate per month. What new form of Horror is this? Like they don't have enough of our information, now they're gonna make More money And have Control..... I believe this is a step down for technology. This affects so much more than just residential... 

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Better idea that nuking ourselves to hell. But still a bad one. A very bad one no matter the "good" reasons that there may be.

Sorry doc, I guess I'm just being a drama queen today.

In all honesty though, I feel like I haven't seen a lot of progress in this country recently (compared to others). I just don't think the government has its priorities in the right order to support the needs of the country.

Well, that's the way cell phone plans are...  (I figure Netflix will declare war on Ottawa over this ).  (sorry, Hankers)

I do feel for you and also think your economy will be hurt as a result of this. I'd have to wonder how necessary this step is?

Can't argue with you, old friend.... and no need to apologize. I just figured you had a burr under your saddle... no biggie.

If you want a revolution on your hands, take away the porn.

It seems to me that any attack as part of cyber warfare that is sufficiently powerful to require a complete national internet shutdown, would be powerful enough to circumvent the shutdown.

It will probably be used like your terror alert daily shows. A means to scare people into thinking there's a threat. Don't get me wrong, you do face a threat. But the proportions would be grossly exaggerated, as they have been before.

- It would be pretty easy for the US Government to shut down the internet for the majority of people in the US.  With legislation backed by huge fines and jail time, they can get US based ISPs shut down - just like Egypt did.  It would take longer due to larger resistance from businesses, but it is definitely feasible.

- We would work around it.  We would use phones to dial out into foreign ISPs, and in the meantime we would see massive riots as twelve million WOW subscribers took to the streets.

- Could the US shut down the entire net for everyone everywhere?  No, not without resorting to DDOS attacks and other nefarious schemes.  They could make it difficult by taking themselves offline, but thats about the end of it.

- Why would we take ourselves offline?  I have no idea.  Like was said earlier, I can see making certain systems a closed system, but I can't see pulling the whole thing offline a good idea.

Seems like a good idea.

Or they could be trying to cyberattack and want us to stay up to allow them to get information and then shut us down.

It's all really confusing isn't it?

My philosophy is: Deal with whatever happens when it happens.

I understand the wish to "be prepared," but that can be a bad thing, spending money on something ridiculous. For example, nuclear war is more worrysome than a cyberattack.

So much of what we get on a daily basis as news is really meant as a sound bit opportunity so someone of self importance can keep their name/image whatever out there.

I would say this, if in fact an actual 'Emergency Off Switch' is ever instituted then the way to combat it is...................not use the Internet.  That would drive them crazy trying to figure out what the rest of us were up to and talking about.     

Not using the internet? THAT'S JUST UN-AMERICAN. If you stop using the internet, THE TERRORISTS WIN. Now just go back online and let us sniff all your details and map your habits, and don't worry! If there is any danger - or the idea of any danger - we can instantly shut it off. I'm sorry, we don't understand the meaning of hypocrisy.

God, I love sarcasm.

"The Switch" obviously exists in Egypt, Philly. I have very few doubts it exists here as well. Do you seriously think the Gov't. of the US, the DoD, CIA, NSA, etc. have fewer technological alternatives than the Egyptian Gov't.?

There are certainly work arounds, but would you be anxious to turn on your machine during a cyberattack? Would you be anxious to use a foreign ISP during a state of national emergency? Have you thought of those possibilities/eventualities? Anyone?

Its not the government per say, they are us after all. But certain types of individuals who gain too much power for themselves. The USA should really have more than a two party system. Turn from being a republic to a true democracy instead. The people have more of a direct say in a democracy..... In Canada the government fears the people.....

Good Topic Doc. 

First, a kill switch for Egypt (or even China) is possible because of the way the Internet was implemented in those countries.  But the way they can do it is not possible for the US.  The Internet was created and DESIGNED in the USA to be redundant, and in most respects, it is.  Other countries "tapped" into the Internet, so the government just has to kill the tap.

However, for all intents and purposes, if the government was given the authority, it could effectively shut down the Internet to all but the most diehard geeks.  How?

The street signs for the Internet are maintained by a core of companies.  And if they were to shut down their servers, no one could get anywhere unless they knew the IP address of where they are going!  DNS people.  And that is the achilees heel for the effective shutting of the internet.  If the Root servers are shut down, you are going no where.

DHS has already done that by basically pulling some sites out of the DNS (supposed pirate sites).  Bit Torrent has said they were looking at creating a P2P DNS for those sites shut down by DHS - and it is doable, but so far that is just a nice idea.  it has not been implemented.

So Obama's "Kill switch" would be to pull the plug on the DNS servers.  That would shut down the internet for not only the USA, but the world (with the exception of their country codes root domains).

Should the government have such authority?  No.  Government abuses everything it is allowed to do.  If you cede that power to them, you have just lost another part of your rights, freedoms and liberties.

Well you may be correct, but there is no doubt that the US is far behind many contries as far as technology. If anyone has doubts about this just Google "world leaders in technolory"

If there was ever a cyber-attack what is the worst thing that could happen to a personal computer, you lose what is on your computer. They wouldn't be interested in what you have on it as they would already have all the main institutions. As far as turning it on during the attack I see it as two possibilites. One being that attack shuts down all the communitations at one time and the second being most people would know its in progress and shut down their own system. If one has already been affected then they wouldn't be able to got on the Internet anyway.

The answers are endless to this question and I have no more because I don't have the answers either only my opinion. However it all started with the AH Senator Joe Lieberman who doesn't know or have answers either.