Court: Homeland Security Must Disclose 'Internet Kill Switch' 228
An anonymous reader writes "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must disclose its plans for a so-called Internet 'kill switch,' a federal court ruled on Tuesday. The United States District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the agency's arguments that its protocols surrounding an Internet kill switch were exempt from public disclosure and ordered the agency to release the records in 30 days. However, the court left the door open for the agency to appeal the ruling."
Re:Why always a back door (Score:5, Insightful)
It depends whether you just kill DNS and wait for most users to give up, or want to kill everything at once and have to reach into the many central nodes that would bring the internet to its knees if they were off.
You don't need to take down that many major nodes for everybody else to become suddenly over-congested and fundamentally useless.
Re:DHS Kill Switch? (Score:5, Insightful)
Real reason: So they can shut down the internet in the vicinity of major protests, and thus keep people from tweeting and streaming video when the police start firing tear gas into the crowd and breaking a few bones.
Re:Why always a back door (Score:3, Insightful)
I never understand this thinking.
In the US, it seems to usually work like this:
politician: "I just got a shit ton of cash from KKK and Bros. to push for a new law so they can add raw sewage to their energy drink as a filler"
Judge:"Wtf? The FDA would never approve that!"
(Enter Bob. Head of FDA. Previous Monsanto lobbyist)
politician:"Hey bob, I'll vote for that new GMO corn thing to ride on the coattails of HSF.32 if you approve this thing for KKK Bros."
Bob:"It's a deal!"
Judge:"I'll never allow this. It's inhumane!"
Politician:"Fine, we'll go get a judge who will"
(Enter Bill, new judge. Previously a lawyer for large soft drink company)
Politician:"Here, sign this. The FDA approved it. We also worked out a deal to get more corn syrup in cola drinks"
Bill: *scribble scribble* -- "There you go."
Re:DHS Kill Switch? (Score:5, Insightful)
Real reason: So they can shut down the internet in the vicinity of major protests, and thus keep people from tweeting and streaming video when the police start firing chemical weapons into the crowd and breaking a few bones.
FTFY.
Getting tired of society trying to wrap a nice, pretty bow on that particularly ugly duck.
Re:First po (Score:1, Insightful)
...because the "first-to-mod" enthusiasts are in such a rush to downmod any ac, they end up demonstrating their own incompetence....
Re:Let's talk about the more interesting thing her (Score:5, Insightful)
If I were the US Government, I wouldn't bother about shutting off the Internet, I'd bother about getting people to stop attaching critical infrastructure to it. The internet is not and was never designed to be a secure network. It's a lot more like a common sewer.
The bigger issue is the DHS itself (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact that this is being discussed shows that the real problem is that an agency as secretive and powerful as the DHS even exists. Remember: J. Stalin was a minor figure in the Russian revolution, but once he gained control of the consolidated bureaucracy of the early USSR, he used that bureaucracy to exile, murder, imprison or otherwise neutralize his political opposition and made himself dictator for life. It is almost impossible for a single individual to defend himself from a large bureaucracy.
Until recently, the best defense that a US citizen had against attack from govt bureaucracy was the competitive turf guarding behavior of the different agencies which limited the power of any single agency. The consolidation of bureaucratic power under the single authority of the DHS has eroded that defense. An additional danger is the, thanks to Snowden, now widely publicized adoption of big database and analytics techniques by the US govt. Mark my words, if the DHS is not disbanded, then eventually the head of the DHS will become the most powerful person in the country, able to determine who gets elected to every office or even cancel elections and with a virtually unlimited ability to coerce any US citizen to do anything.
Re:I doubt it (Score:5, Insightful)
" a governemt has the authority to make it so."
Perhaps you are confusing power with authority. My government has the power to prevent me having any contact with the outside world. My government has no such authority.
Re:DHS Kill Switch? (Score:4, Insightful)
Media blackout. A populace ignorant of goings on is easier to control.
Alternate media black-out. I can guarantee you CNN will be on the air saying what they're told[paid] to say.
And yes I am an ashamed American, ashamed of what my country has become.
You should be a proud American, but realize that the US Government has become an enemy of the idea the is America. There's a reason why the Founders spoke of "Enemies Foreign and Domestic".
Re:Why always a back door (Score:5, Insightful)
You've made a total hash of how the U.S. political and legal system work, and your scenario makes no sense at all. How in the world did this get modded insightful?
Just to clarify;
Politician writes bill.
Politician may look for co-sponsors to strengthen the bill's chances.
Politician proposes bill, or attaches it as an amendment to some other bill.
Legislature debates bill and passes it or not.
Bill becomes law.
FDA, private citizens, or other interested parties may choose to sue to overturn the law.
THEN the judiciary gets involved.
Re:I doubt it (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm still trying to figure out why we even have a need for a kill switch.
The answer to that seems fairly apparent: To prevent or stifle a popular uprising against those in charge. Our government no longer works for us. In many ways, it works against us.