President To Control The Internet?
August 28th, 2009 by ComputerBob
Anyone who bothers to look, has been able to see for quite awhile that modern society, commerce, governments, militaries and educational systems all heavily rely on the Internet.
Some say too heavily.
We can all think of new technologies that were quickly and universally embraced, with very few people bothering to scan the horizon to warn us of the new problems that had come along for the ride.
Until it was too late.
Now that anyone who has bothered to look has seen that everything from water treatment plants to air traffic control, from the entire electrical grid to the stock market, from political election results to everyone’s medical, financial and academic records, from the entire telecommunications industry to the control of nuclear-powered submarines can be threatened by determined hackers, the U.S. government is finally trying to get a handle on the country’s cybersecurity.
But is it a good idea for the president to have the power to disconnect private sector computers from the Internet, or is that proposal just an opportunistic power-grab?
As always, Slashdot’s readers have a lot to say on the subject.
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