The Matrix: Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the cheat-code to defeat the Final Boss of the Internet.
They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to use cheat-codes to skip the "Final Boss" stage of the internet all together, and thus avoiding the confrontation.
The new version would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "being on his last guy" and do what's necessary to bypass the boss without risking a game-over. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for "cybersecurity professionals," and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people with similar cheat-codes.
"I think the redraft, while improved, remains troubling due to the fact that it requires no skill," said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, which counts representatives of Verizon, Verisign, Nortel, and Carnegie Mellon University on its board. "It's clear the administration has been getting pwned by teh internet, and is resorting to cheat-codes in order to get past levels because they got no skilz."
Representatives of other large Internet and telecommunications companies expressed concerns about the bill in a teleconference with Rockefeller's aides this week, but were not immediately available for interviews on Thursday.
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US Justice Department to seek authority to bypass Final Boss
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