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."
Obligatory question (Score:2, Informative)
Sure...give the government an internet kill switch. What could possibly go wrong?
Sad truths (Score:3, Informative)
Re:In some ways... (Score:5, Informative)
How in the world is this troll? We are not a direct democracy PRECISELY type for this reason. Someone needs to brush up on their Civics class...
Re:News: Most Americans. . . (Score:3, Informative)
The people saying the government should be able to knock out sections of the net are the probably some of the same people who own zombie systems because they can't be bothered to install patches or like to click on every file sent to them.
Of course they are going to say that. (Score:5, Informative)
If you google 'Unisys', the first result is an article saying that Profit Tanks at Unisys Corporation [zacks.com]
Apparently their year-over-year profits are down 54%, to $21 million from over $50 million a year ago, and their Technology sector revenue declined 31%. Apparently this is driven by a lack of demand for their ClearPath server line.
So by pumping this 'intenet kill switch' idea, it may be that they expect to be first in line to implement it, and get some handsome profits from the taxpayer pie in the bargain.
This is about as believable as Bill Gates and other tech leaders trumpeting that there were not enough skilled US IT workers a few years back. Sure there were, just not at the immigrant prices that Gates and others wanted to pay. Here's a video from a recruiter seminar instructing recruiters on how not to find qualified American applicants for jobs [youtube.com] while putting in the legally required advertisements. Look for the speaker stating at about 1:44 into the video that "our goal here is clearly not to find a qualified and interested US worker".
Of course corporations are going to release self-serving announcements like this -- it's just fulfilling their legal mandate to act in the best interests of their shareholders. In other news, the sky is blue.
Re:News: Most Americans. . . (Score:2, Informative)
There is not a "culture of dumbness" in China as there is here in the US.
Example 1: Someone has exceptional blackhat skills and is able to focus on finding the bug in a haystack of large programs, finding new exploits. In China, they would be given a job and be considered a national hero. In Iran, they would be asked to join the IRG. Israel, they would be a part of the IDF. Here in the US, they would be tossed in the slammer for a long amount of years by a jury as fearful of them as the Salemites were of witches. Thankfully, this is beginning to change with smarter people in the public sector. However the greybeards still remember SJ Games and Operation Sun Devil.
Example 2: Heroes and role models. Last night, the University of Texas tower glowed orange, not for a football game, but for a noted scientist winning the Direc Medal. This is how the US *should* be. Most of the time, scientists and engineers are considered as a necessary evil, while people who strum a guitar, play a sport, or even just try to be stylish while sucking off a trust fund are considered the American role models. This is changing for the better, but because of the years of this, the style for America was to be dumb and let the "geeks" handle anything more complicated than an abacus. Joe Sixpack doesn't want to appear to know the "high tech stuff" as it would make him appear less macho among his Bud Light [1] swilling buds.
So, because of these trends, coupled with areas of the US that have had very poor education systems [2], the US has more than its share of dunderheads. Thankfully it seems that the pendulum towards Mike Judge's film is swinging back. There is a hope that Americans won't be watering crops with sports drink in the future.
[1]: Guinness has 170 calories per pint. BL has 110. For 60 calories, isn't it better to drink something that doesn't suck?
[2]: There are a lot of places where the education system does not fail the students, and the places are genuinely improving. However, there are still a lot of areas of the US where the only education is to "consume, consume, consume, and follow the orders given to you by the music and spoken words emanating from the TV."
Re:News: Most Americans. . . (Score:5, Informative)
Where's the idiocracy tag when you need it?
About nine keystrokes away.
Re:In some ways... (Score:4, Informative)
Beware the idea of keeping the people out the real decisions because they are too dumb or inexperienced: getting people dumbed down and their lowest instincts tickled so that an elite can rule over them with the praetext of protecting society from itself becomes feasible.
One word: California. The place where they vote ballot measures to jack up spending (usually on "get tough on crime" crusades), and suppress taxes at the same time. Then they wonder why they spend so much of their income servicing debt. They have voted on measures that make it impossible for legislators to pass a budget. And who do they blame for the gridlock in the state Capitol? The legislators!
Direct democracy is the greatest threat to civilisation. Californian voters need a good slap upside the head, told to eat what's put in front of them, and stop acting like the childish entitlement merchants they are. California doesn't need more direct democracy, it needs a king. The state is an example of democracy run amok.
I dunno how it would end up for national security.
But for money policies we left the matter to central banks so we could have stability and dunno what else, and debt became widespread, money rules de facto over law, insolvent banks compete with their fractional reserve in the same league of your hard earned money. Not the best deal.
Central banks are accountable to their respective legislators. In Britain, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (the finance minister) used to have direct control of interest rates. It was a disaster because the government kept fiddling interest rates for party political reasons, usually around election time. It doesn't take a genius to guess what that led to. Stability was greatly improved when that was delegated to the Bank of England.
So what? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:This just in. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:News: Most Americans. . . (Score:3, Informative)
You, sir, are an enemy of the people.
Please don't speak on this subject again.