Feds bringing back up internet "Kill Switch"

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... ill-switch
What Is the Best Way to Protect U.S. Critical Infrastructure from a Cyber Attack?
Egypt's Internet shutdown and recent U.S. legislation proposing expanded White House control of critical infrastructure cyber security have conjured images of a government-controlled Internet kill switch
By Larry Greenemeier | February 4, 2011
The latest such bill, the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z ... L&summ2=m& was introduced last June by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and revised in December by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/ It calls for the formation of a National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC) within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that would be responsible for protecting both federal computer networks and critical infrastructure owned by the private sector against cyber attacks.

Although the White House already has broad wartime powers, making aspects of the proposed act redundant, opposition to the bill has centered on its provision to give the federal government the authority to define what is meant by "critical infrastructure." According to the bill (pdf), http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111s ... 3480rs.pdf the government can "take measures to protect any computer system whose destruction or disruption of reliable operation would cause national or regional catastrophic effects." This could include cutting off the system from the Internet. Owners of facilities labeled as critical infrastructure would be notified as soon as this designation is made. An owner could appeal this designation but, as the bill is currently written, the government would make the final decision to disconnect, which is not subject to judicial review.

To better understand Lieberman's bill and its potential impact, Scientific American spoke with James Lewis, senior fellow and director of the Center for Strategic & International Studies's Technology and Public Policy Program. Lewis took opponents of the bill to task for inventing the idea of an Internet kill switch, defended several changes the bill would make to White House cyber security oversight, and questioned whether government should let critical infrastructure owners determine how these systems are protected from cyber attacks.
[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]