There are two bills in the Senate that have been read twice and sent to committee for review last week. Both were co-sponsored by Senator Jay Rockefeller. They are S773 and S778 and they could grant the Obama administration far reaching powers – as if they have not overreached already. Both bills are part of the Cybersecurity Act of 2009.
World Net Daily is reporting that these bills “would grant the White House sweeping new powers to access private online data, regulate the cybersecurity industry and even shut down Internet traffic during a declared ‘cyber emergency’.”
WND also reported that “a working draft of the legislation obtained by an Internet privacy group also spells out plans to grant the Secretary of Commerce access to all privately owned information networks deemed to be critical to the nation’s infrastructure ‘without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule or policy restricting such access’.
The description of S773 is as follows: “A bill to ensure the continued free flow of commerce within the United States and with its global trading partners through secure cyber communications, to provide for the continued development and exploitation of the Internet and intranet communications for such purposes, to provide for the development of a cadre of information technology specialists to improve and maintain effective cybersecurity defenses against disruption, and for other purposes.” The bill has been referred to committee and the full text is not available yet.
The description of S778 is as follows: “A bill to establish, within the Executive Office of the President, the Office of National Cybersecurity Advisor.” It has been referred to committee and the text for that is also unavailable.
Keep your eyes on these bills.
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