Like Francisco Franco, Internet Kill Switch is Still Dead

kill switchSometimes a really bad idea can live on, no matter how thoroughly it's rejected. Such is the case with the "Internet kill switch" idea featured on and off in proposed homeland security legislation.

The notion is that the President, or in some versions some other government agency, should have the power to disconnect certain "critical infrastructure" in the event of an emergency which meets legislative criteria. We'll ignore the fact that attacks against such infrastructure could be executed in microseconds, far too quickly for government to react. And any pre-emptive action would inevitably cause huge economic losses; imagine the major banks being taken offline long?

The idea has been floating out there for a few years and became prominent early in the Obama administration. An eclectic and seemingly centrist group of legislators, including Senators Collins from Maine and Lieberman from Connecticut, advocated it. But even putting aside considerable technical and logistical problems with the proposal, the interests against it are huge. It never had a chance.

But now that Egypt has shown that it can shut itself off from the Internet altogether, Senator Collins has been inspired to reintroduce her bill which expired with the last congress. Why now? Fortunately, all the reasons why it was a bad idea before are still operative and the interests against it are at least as well organized.

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