No. I don't favor it. That is not what the Internet i about. It would be a perversion of it as Egypt just showed......

I think you give too much credit to Liebermann, personally. That's one hell of a conspiracy theory. Not to say it couldn't be true, but as I said, you give Liebermann too much credit. I have lived in CT my whole life. He's an idiot. He barely even knows what the internet is. I think he actually does want it to prevent cyber crimes. But he's not doing because of some sinister plan, or paranoid reaction. It's because he doesn't know better.

It just reaffirms my belief that government needs to stay away from the internet.

At some point in time those that are in 'Power' will always look for a way to stop the cross feed of information, news, whatever.  It's 1984 all over again.  George Orwell did send us a message, did you read it? 

With all the important things going on Senator Joe Lieberman has the time to think about something like this and doesn’t even know if it’s possible to do. With the tens or hundreds of thousands of cable companies available in the US I’m sure they are all already capable of shutting down their systems to home, business, and anywhere else they supply. So where does it stop? How about your television, Radio, etc. Maybe we just need bills to shut down the entire United States and go one more step and shut down the world. If there were to be this kind of attack do you think who ever does this would really care about you little computer? They would either try to shut everything down 100% or more likely try to go after Government agencies, financial institutions, and those types of systems. So if there was a cyber-attack maybe the normal user would be left alone and we may still be able to filter some information to use and find out what is going on. So am I in favor of it, No. Am I worried about it, No. So many other things that could wipe us all out totally and if a cyber-attack would happen we would still be here and the powers would figure things out, hopefully. So keep everything backed up and if it ever happened and things get back to normal just reformat and load your back up in. Ready to go again all fresh and new and get back on the WC.

Sorry doc, I guess I'm just being a drama queen today.

In all honesty though, I feel like I haven't seen a lot of progress in this country recently (compared to others). I just don't think the government has its priorities in the right order to support the needs of the country.

If you want a revolution on your hands, take away the porn.

It seems to me that any attack as part of cyber warfare that is sufficiently powerful to require a complete national internet shutdown, would be powerful enough to circumvent the shutdown.

It will probably be used like your terror alert daily shows. A means to scare people into thinking there's a threat. Don't get me wrong, you do face a threat. But the proportions would be grossly exaggerated, as they have been before.

- It would be pretty easy for the US Government to shut down the internet for the majority of people in the US.  With legislation backed by huge fines and jail time, they can get US based ISPs shut down - just like Egypt did.  It would take longer due to larger resistance from businesses, but it is definitely feasible.

- We would work around it.  We would use phones to dial out into foreign ISPs, and in the meantime we would see massive riots as twelve million WOW subscribers took to the streets.

- Could the US shut down the entire net for everyone everywhere?  No, not without resorting to DDOS attacks and other nefarious schemes.  They could make it difficult by taking themselves offline, but thats about the end of it.

- Why would we take ourselves offline?  I have no idea.  Like was said earlier, I can see making certain systems a closed system, but I can't see pulling the whole thing offline a good idea.

So much of what we get on a daily basis as news is really meant as a sound bit opportunity so someone of self importance can keep their name/image whatever out there.

I would say this, if in fact an actual 'Emergency Off Switch' is ever instituted then the way to combat it is...................not use the Internet.  That would drive them crazy trying to figure out what the rest of us were up to and talking about.     

"The Switch" obviously exists in Egypt, Philly. I have very few doubts it exists here as well. Do you seriously think the Gov't. of the US, the DoD, CIA, NSA, etc. have fewer technological alternatives than the Egyptian Gov't.?

There are certainly work arounds, but would you be anxious to turn on your machine during a cyberattack? Would you be anxious to use a foreign ISP during a state of national emergency? Have you thought of those possibilities/eventualities? Anyone?

Its not the government per say, they are us after all. But certain types of individuals who gain too much power for themselves. The USA should really have more than a two party system. Turn from being a republic to a true democracy instead. The people have more of a direct say in a democracy..... In Canada the government fears the people.....

Well you may be correct, but there is no doubt that the US is far behind many contries as far as technology. If anyone has doubts about this just Google "world leaders in technolory"

If there was ever a cyber-attack what is the worst thing that could happen to a personal computer, you lose what is on your computer. They wouldn't be interested in what you have on it as they would already have all the main institutions. As far as turning it on during the attack I see it as two possibilites. One being that attack shuts down all the communitations at one time and the second being most people would know its in progress and shut down their own system. If one has already been affected then they wouldn't be able to got on the Internet anyway.

The answers are endless to this question and I have no more because I don't have the answers either only my opinion. However it all started with the AH Senator Joe Lieberman who doesn't know or have answers either.