Posted: 2/16/2011 1:06:51 PM EDT
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WTF? discuss? |
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In times of war was:
Paper mail ever discontinued? Telegraph service stopped? Telex service stopped? Telephone service stopped? Radio/Television stopped? Roadways, rail or other commercial connections closed? I suppose the answer is occasionally yes. I fear the judgement of the current officeholder. |
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Quoted:
In times of war was: Paper mail ever discontinued? Telegraph service stopped? Telex service stopped? Telephone service stopped? Radio/Television stopped? Roadways, rail or other commercial connections closed? I suppose the answer is occasionally yes. I fear the judgement of the current officeholder. Censored, most certainly. |
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I was actually discussing this with some folks the other day…
I can envision a situation where shutting down the Internet would be critical. The scenario I came up with was a Trojan horse embedded in some software patch. If a signal is given through an internet connection it will start altering data at random on the host machine. This is plausible and it’s also possible. Preventing widespread damage would require shutting down the internet before the hackers could activate their attack. I’m sure there are other scenarios. Point is that there could be a case where it would be important to shut down the internet. But… the potential for political mischief is too great to allow any politician that level of power. The solution to this is simple… Ask every internet provider to come up with an emergency shutdown procedure. The providers would give the appropriate contact information to the White House. If a shutdown was needed the President could make the necessary calls and the executives at the private corporations could decide whether they felt shutting down their part of the internet was appropriate. I don’t think any CEO would have a problem with doing so (especially if the law exempted them from any liability) in the event of an actual emergency. But they would be very reluctant to do so if it was an effort for some politician to save his own ass. The Government should have no authority to order a shutdown, just request it. This eliminates the threat of political abuse while still allowing a response to an actual emergency. |