US Proposes Cyberspace Policy
June 16th, 2010 by adminA US law has been proposed to give the US President full control over sizeable sectors of the internet’s infrastructure. Such powers would be usable if the US government declared a state of emergency.
The bill, entitled Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act (also known as the PCNAA) was initially proposed by the chairman of the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee, Joe Lieberman.
If enacted, the bill would create a governmental body that would supervise the safety of the many networks upon which the internet relies. This would be known as the Office of Cyberspace Policy. Under this law, the US President and Director of Cyberspace Policy would have far-reaching powers.
The proposed law has been greeted with unease by IT professionals. TechAmerica is the US’ largest IT group and has said that while the provisions for national economic security were founded, a measure of this magnitude put into force could prove detrimental to general terms and conditions contained in the Patriot Act. Although, the US Patriot Act contains a definition of the critical infrastructure utilized in the PCNAA, campaigners have stressed the need to diligent control to prevent an abuse of powers by the US Senate.
The bill has proposed that a declared state of emergency would not last longer than 30 consecutive days unless a written order to extend such a term had been submitted by either the President of Director of Cyberspace Policy.
The bill would necessitate the operators of the infrastructure to report all security breaches to the Office of Cyberspace Policy to enable the US Government to maintain a widespread picture of security threats.
