Thread: Committee Passes Internet Kill Switch; Not in Egypt — U.S.

Committee Passes Plan for Internet ‘Kill Switch’ in Egypt — U.S.

January 29, 2011 at 1:52pm
by Meredith Jessup
Comments 218

Pending legislation that would grant the President of the United States the power to pull the plug on the country’s internet access in a declared “emergencyâ€

Going over all the potential uses of this:

1. Attack on the US land war.
2. Nuclear attack on the US.
3. Economic attack on the US.
4. Financial attack on the US.
5. Civil Unrest in the US.

The only 2 potential risks that would have any positive effect for the government would be 4. Financial attack on the US, and 5. Civil Unrest in the US.

A financial attack however is highly unlikely as beating that hard line of security for a thousand seperate systems which many are on an intranet not connected to the internet directly if at all us basically a myth scenario. Yes some small havok can be created but really it would require numerous cyber specialists in the companies infrastructure to be able to gain access to do any real damage. Thus a pull plug on the internet itself would be moot and pointless.

Civil Unrest however being the remaining risk is the major worry here. If they can cut communications around the world if a time came when the People themselves came to the streets creating civil unrest beyond simple protests the government would be able to shut down the international media from reporting on it in detail. Thus giving the government time to squash such with military and criminal force while keeping the face of not harming anyone. It would give them the ability to dispose of who they wished who didn't agree and virtually do whatever they wanted.

The international media plays today a huge role in any major government change through protests and even civil unrest. The harder approach the failing government takes the more critisizm they recieve from the international world thus making it far harder to regain power as a part of the world. As the government already controls the majority of the local media and can issue gag orders as they wish as well, the risks are staggering.

Pretty clear to see the real reason to have this presidential order, and its criminal at the least. Any arguement can be shot down with ease. The SS mainframe can be disconnected in seconds manually from the net as can any other serious government mainframes. Most of the major banks as well besides keeping seperate data backups also can disconnect very quickly if needed plus their mainframes are rarely connected to the net.