Most Americans Support an Internet Kill Switch 398
Orome1 writes "Sixty-one percent of Americans said the President should have the ability to shut down portions of the Internet in the event of a coordinated malicious cyber attack, according to research by Unisys. The survey found that while Americans are taking proactive steps to protect themselves against cybercrime and identity theft, only slightly more than a third of Internet users in the US regularly use and update passwords on their mobile devices – creating a potentially huge security hole for organizations as more consumer devices invade the workplace. The findings illustrate that recent events such as the Stuxnet computer worm attack and the attempted Times Square car bombing may have heightened the American public's awareness of and concern over global and domestic cybersecurity threats."
Most Americans? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:This just in. (Score:5, Funny)
Just to clarify, is that to hit someone with your cock? or is that to hit someone in the cock? If it's the latter, then your solution may be flawed since 61% may include both male and female. You may need to throw in a vaginachop to cover all your bases.
Re:This just in. (Score:5, Funny)
61% of Americans need to be cockpunched
50.9% of Americans do not have a cock to punch. (2000 census)
Re:News: Most Americans. . . (Score:3, Funny)
Ever tried explaining a buffer overflow stack-smashing attack to someone?
Only "for fun and profit."
Re:This just in. (Score:3, Funny)
61% of Americans need to be cockpunched. Thoroughly.
I believe you are referring to hitting someone with a rooster, otherwise half of the population would not be covered by your opinion.
Re:News: Most Americans. . . (Score:3, Funny)
may have heightened American's awareness and concern.
Maybe I'm just being pedantic, but hightened concern in the US doesn't normally equate to hightened awareness. We are still that country that bans matches on board of aircraft because of security "concerns," but allows on butane lighters because of a lack of awareness.
If American's security concerns about the internet were heightened, I wouldn't keep coming across people surfing with expired copies of Norton Antivirus on XP SP1 machines that spew more worthless zombie crap than George Romero.
"Hey, let's build in a big red button into the internet. That way, when the president needs to stop all communication, crashing lots of security systems and generally leading to anarchy and billions of dollars of lost productivity, he will be able to flip a Lexan shield and push the button. Don't worry, though, those crafty hackers will never be able to break through Lexan." You might as well mount a gun pointed at our country's head and put a big sticker on it in Chinese saying "please don't pull this trigger."
Blazing sadles (Score:3, Funny)
"You've got to remember, that these are just simple farmers, these are people of the land, the common clay of the new west. You know . . . morons."
H. L. Mencken (Score:1, Funny)
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. --H. L. Mencken
On the other hand (Score:3, Funny)
Re:News: Most Americans. . . (Score:4, Funny)
Re:This just in. (Score:3, Funny)
You may need to throw in a vaginachop to cover all your bases.
I don't know, I usually don't get past 2nd base when I do that.
Re:In some ways... (Score:4, Funny)
Holy crap - someone used the distinction between a direct democracy and a republic or representative democracy in the correct context and to provide topical commentary. Color me shocked.
Most Americans. . .are really stupid (Score:3, Funny)
We already have several of these. They are called 'MIRVing ICBMs', but they functionally do the same thing.
Re:This just in. (Score:2, Funny)
Oh, dear. You're not from here, are you? Let me explain America to you so you'll understand what you're up against.
America is divided into a number of broad regions, each of which has a VERY different culture. You can generally consider these regions to be: The Northeast, The West Coast, The Southwest, The Plains States, The Midwest, and the Deep South. With me so far?
Europeans would be quite comfortable on the West Coast, in the Northeast, and in parts of Arizona (which is in the Southwest but has quite a different flavor from most of it). People in these areas would generally despise a "kill switch" because they're generally against the government acting like jackbooted thugs. We do cherish our freedom, in these areas. We also tend to be fairly technically sophisticated.
Most people think of the West Coast as California and Seattle, Washington; however I hear there are other parts in the forest for those who wish to look (beware of bears, serial killers, and survivalists).
The Northeast starts at the Western border of the "Tri State Area" (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut) and extends all the way Northeast through Maine. Sometimes people include Pennsylvania in this because of the number of people from Manhattan who spend their weekends in the Poconos. I myself do not. However I hear nice things about Philadelphia.
Within Arizona, Flagstaff stands as the sole remaining nature preserve for what remains of our hippy population, carefully preserved by the Department of the Interior. Rather nice people, hippies; they are just as allergic to jackbooted thuggishness as the rest of us. There are also some very well educated, fine folks in Phoenix and Prescott. I can't report on Tuscon, as I have never ventured there.
This leaves us with the remaining areas of the country, which contain at least 61 percent of Americans.
Perhaps you see where I'm going with this? Put it this way: They were the knuckleheads who got Bush elected, not once but TWICE.
Now, as to your action plan to deal with this 61 percent who are causing all these problems: I heartily applaud your can-do attitude! While setting out on your quest to "forcefully indicate your opinion" please keep the following in mind:
1) Traveling into the "interior" is not particularly safe. The locals are VERY well armed and sometimes well organized. Attempts at forcefully expressing an opinion may be countered with such rhetorical mechanisms as "the hail of gunfire" and "the pick-axe handle to the head".
2) While most locals are very well behaved, some are not. There are three very well made documentaries about what one can expect from poorly behaved locals, with surprisingly good production values: for travel in the Deep South, I recommend "Deliverance" and "Southern Comfort", both of which were made by the tourism bureaus of their respective states. For information about poorly behaved locals in the Midwest, see "Fargo", a documentary made for University of Wisconsin Criminal Justice students about investigatory techniques.
Ah, well! Good luck with your "Forceful opinion delivery" mission! If you make it back alive, we'll buy you a beer!
Re:Which big red button (Score:3, Funny)
Easy fix, Have a fourth big red button that confirms one of the other three big red button push.
With this safety mechanism, they wouldnt have to worry about accidentally pushing a big red button, they could press them all the time for drills, playing pranks on foreign visitors etc.
Re:News: Most Americans. . . (Score:3, Funny)
Umm... I beg to argue (Score:3, Funny)
(btw... I actually like her)