As we posted a couple of days ago, Senators John Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) introduced a bill to establish the Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor—an arm of the executive branch that would have vast power to monitor and control Internet traffic to protect against threats to “critical cyber infrastructure”:

You can read the bill here. (PDF)

The law among other things, gives the president the ability to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” and shut down or limit Internet traffic in any “critical” information network “in the interest of national security.” The bill does not define what a “critical information network” is or what a “cybersecurity emergency”. That definition is apparently left to the President to define on the fly.

The bill also grants the Secretary of Commerce “access to all relevant data concerning critical networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access.” This means the Secretary can monitor or access any data on private or public networks without regard to privacy laws.

According to CDT senior counsel Greg Nojeim this bill can supercide the, Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which was enacted in the mid-80’s and basically requires law enforcement to obtain a warrant before tapping in to data transmissions between computers.

If the Commerce Department uncovers evidence of illegal activity when accessing “critical” networks, that information could be used against a potential defendant, even if the department never had the intent to find incriminating evidence, thereby violating the Constitutional protection against searches without cause.

Once information is accessed, it can be used for whatever purpose, no matter the original reason for accessing something.

Think of this bill as the Patriot Act for the Internet.

Broad powers granted to the executive branch, without definition or limit, and without review or needed involvement by any other branch of government.

We have all seen how the Patriot Act has been abused over the years, by the prosecution of people having nothing to do with “terrorism”.

The granting of absolute, arbitrary power is never a good idea and therefore you should be against this proposed law.