Obama is ready to sign an executive order giving himself and his administration more control over the internet. A National Security Council spokeswoman stated, “An executive order is one of a number of measures we’re considering as we look to implement the President’s direction to do absolutely everything we can to better protect our nation against today’s cyberthreats.” She could have just ended it with “…the President’s direction to do absolutely everything we can.” That would have been more accurate.
Government agencies claim that our power grid is threatened by hackers, but cyber experts make the case that most infrastructure systems are not connected to the public internet and hacking into the power grid would be basically impossible with only an internet connection, no matter how good the hacker is. In an interview with Homeland Security News Wire, international cyber security expert Bruce Schneier stated that while cyber crimes like identity theft are real but largely ignored by the mainstream press, “the threat of cyber-war has been grossly exaggerated, both by government and industry. We are in the early years of a cyber-war arms race, and there is a lot of money and power up for grabs. Same with cyber-terrorism, the threat is being exaggerated.”
The press has been reporting an increase in cyber related attacks from hacker groups like Anonymous and Antisec, but in reality, says Bruce Schneier, hacker activity has not increased, only media coverage has. And this has a purpose, namely to drum up support from the people for more government control. But it was evident that it wasn’t drumming up enough support because the Congress and Senate have failed to pass internet control legislation, and that’s where the executive order comes in.
I don’t believe that these “emergency” executive orders or legislation are really to protect us. They claim it’s to protect us from cyber attacks and child pornography. But how are more internet taxes, regulations and orders forcing ISPs to hand over their customers’ internet activity supposed to protect us from hackers or child molesters who wish to do us harm? If anything, those things make us more vulnerable. Maybe that is what the Obama administration wants – to make us, businesses and ISPs vulnerable to attacks to further justify a complete government takeover of the tech industry and internet.
