lieberman wants terrorist flagging button added to blogger

Senator Joseph Lieberman writes letter to Google requesting terrorist flagging feature be added to its blogging platform, Blogger, reports Cryptogon website. Lieberman moved to write letter due to recent bomb suspect Jose Pimentel's arrest. "Cops say he was putting the finishing touches on a pipe bomb when they arrested him Saturday," according to NYDailyNews.com article. "Pimentel is accused of hatching a plot to blow up police cars, post offices and U.S. soldiers." Governments move to quell dissent when public opinion turns against them; the Pimentel case represents an excuse for a crack down.

2/3 defcon: killswitch, bandwidth, floodgates

as egypt returns to the internet: lieberman says US internet killswitch bill is different than egypt's internet killswitch*
US tests system that beats internet censorship by dictatorships*
certified lies: detecting & defeating govt interception attacks against ssl*
vodafone volluded with egyptian regime's information warfare psyop*
metered bandwidth isn't about stopping bandwidth hogs; it's about preserving old media business models*
US p2p traffic lower than world average*
US cyber challenge partners with lockmart & microsoft*
US recruiting young cyber warriors*
docs in assange rape investigation leak onto web*
video: assange's boring 60 minutes interview*
no, hackers can't open hoover dam floodgates*
nasa spots 54 life-friendly planets*
video: ufo hovers over jerusalem*

youtube will allow users to flag videos for promoting 'terrorism'

from abcnews: Can the will of the people protect the idea of free speech? America's founding fathers said no, but YouTube is going to give it a try. In an effort to scrub the video site of clips that promote terrorism or extremism, YouTube has announced that it will allow its users to flag propaganda videos for removal. As the Los Angeles Times reports, the move is a long time in coming. Sen. Joe Lieberman (Independent-Conn.), has been lobbying YouTube to remove such videos for years. He told the LA Times that YouTube's move is "good first step" toward curtailing an effective terror recruitment tool, though lawmakers would prefer for the videos to be prescreened before they're ever even posted. New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, a Democrat, has also asked YouTube to remove some videos, specifically videos from Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric now seen as a major al Qaeda leader. Our question to you today: Is user flagging a good way to remove terror propaganda videos, or is this a threat to free speech?

flashbacks: lieberman tells internet to 'relax' about 'kill switch' & cyber/space\war: white house prepping national internet identity authentication plan

cybersecurity measures would mandate govt 'id tokens' to use the net

from paul joseph watson & alex jones: The move to shut down and regulate the Internet under a new government-controlled system has accelerated into high gear with the announcement that the government’s cybersecurity strategy revolves around issuing Internet users with ID “tokens” without which they will not be able to visit websites, the latest salvo against web freedom which, in combination with Senator Joe Lieberman’s ‘kill switch’ bill, will serve to eviscerate the free Internet as we know it.

Under the guise of “cybersecurity,” the government is moving to discredit and shut down the existing Internet infrastructure in the pursuit of a new, centralized, regulated world wide web.

This exact strategy was outlined in a paper published by Obama’s cybersecurity co-ordinator Howard Schmidt, which was compiled with the aid of the National Security Council.

The strategy revolves around, “The creation of a system for identity management that would allow citizens to use additional authentication techniques, such as physical tokens or modules on mobile phones, to verify who they are before buying things online or accessing such sensitive information as health or banking records,” reports the FInancial Times.

Only with this government-issued “token” will Internet users be allowed to “able to move from website to website,” a system not too far removed from what China proposed and rejected for being too authoritarian.

obama internet 'kill switch' plan approved by US senate

from techworld: A US Senate committee has approved a wide-ranging cybersecurity bill that some critics have suggested would give the US president the authority to shut down parts of the Internet during a cyberattack.

Senator Joe Lieberman and other bill sponsors have refuted the charges that the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act gives the president an Internet "kill switch." Instead, the bill puts limits on the powers the president already has to cause "the closing of any facility or stations for wire communication" in a time of war, as described in the Communications Act of 1934, they said in a breakdown of the bill published on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee website.

The committee unanimously approved an amended version of the legislation by voice vote Thursday, a committee spokeswoman said. The bill next moves to the Senate floor for a vote, which has not yet been scheduled.

lieberman tells internet to 'relax' about 'kill switch'

from raw replay: Sen. Joe Lieberman is telling his critics to “relax” over a bill that would allow the president to disable parts of the internet as he deems necessary. China has an internet “kill switch” and the U.S. should too, according to Lieberman.

“We need this capacity in a time of war. We need the capacity for the president to say, internet service provider, we’ve got to disconnect the American internet from all traffic coming in from another foreign country, or we have to put a patch on this part of it,” Lieberman told CNN’s Candy Crowley Sunday.

“So I say to my friends on the internet, relax. Take a look at the bill. And this is something that we need to protect our country. Right now China, the government, can disconnect parts of its internet in case of war and we need to have that here too,” he said.

This video is from CNN’s State of the Union, broadcast June 20, 2010.

update: cybersecurity bill clears senate committee

dhs cyber bill would codify executive emergency powers

from the atlantic: At the beginning of the year, the chances that some sort of cybersecurity legislation would reach the president's desk by the end of 2010 were remote. But as of today, there are a half dozen such bills circulating, and the sense of urgency is there, thanks to a huge and largely unremarked upon public lobbying campaign by the defense industry that may or may not comport with the actual level of threat. I don't mean that as a snide aside; I just don't know how vulnerable we are at this moment.

Today, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee unveils its legislation, which would create a Senate-confirmable cyber director in the executive office of the president and imbue him or her with significant emergency powers.

The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010 (PC-NNA ... PC Nana?) is "designed to bring together the disjointed efforts of multiple federal agencies and departments to prevent cyber theft, intrusions, and attacks across the federal government and the private sector," its chief author, Sen. Joe Lieberman, will say in prepared remarks today. "The bill would establish a clear organizational structure to lead federal efforts in safeguarding cyber networks. And it would build a public/private partnership to increase the preparedness and resiliency of those private critical infrastructure cyber networks upon which our way of life depends."

The bill would create another Senate-confirmable position, the head of a new National Cybersecurity and Communications Center inside the Department of Homeland Security; the new NCCC would be responsible for threat prevention and mitigation. It would develop risk-based standards for infrastructure with industry and oversee their implementation. Private entities whose power plants or grids or systems are considered vulnerable and critical could choose among a menu of standards.

According to a summary of the legislation, the Act would also create a "responsible" framework for giving the executive branch significant emergency power in the event of a major intrusion or threat.

The President must notify Congress in advance about the threat and the emergency measures that will be taken to mitigate it. Any emergency measures imposed must be the least disruptive necessary to respond to the threat. These emergency measures will expire after 30 days unless the President orders an extension. The bill does not authorize any new surveillance authorities, or permit the government to "take over" private networks.

Industry will read this part of the bill very carefully, as will civil libertarians. The White House believes it already has a lot of these powers, although it welcomes Congress's attempt to codify them, but my sense is that the National Security Staff does not want to create any new cyber infrastructure within the already over-burdened executive office of the president, and isn't keen on having the top two cyber positions be Senate confirmable.

updates: internet 'kill switch' proposed for US*
lawmakers question US cybersecurity readiness*
experts warn of government's inability to respond to cyber threats*
pentagon launches salvo in war to protect an army of 7m*
cybersecurity bill would give president, dhs too much power, critics say*
cybersecurity not a 'command & control' effort*