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Proposed Law Would Give DHS Power Over Privately Owned IT Infrastructure

CelticWhisper writes "H.R. 3674, the Promoting and Enhancing Cybersecurity and Information Sharing Effectiveness Act (PRECISE Act), would allow the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to require improved security practices from those businesses managing systems whose disruption could prove detrimental to critical life-sustaining or national-security initiatives." As the article points out, this is just "one of 30 or so such bills currently percolating on the Hill."

6 of 300 comments (clear)

  1. OK, so... by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Can we please get rid of patents on cryptography? There are a lot of cryptosystems out there whose deployment is being hampered by patents on the underlying mathematics, and which could go a long way toward improving the state of computer security. This would not be a bad place to start repealing software patents:

    http://www.voltage.com/technology/patents/index.htm

    Here too:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECC_patents

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    Palm trees and 8
  2. and so it begins by simoncpu+was+here · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The United States of America comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive republic were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valor. The gentle but powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of the states. Their peaceful inhabitants enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury. The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence: the American people appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and devolved on the President the executive powers of government.

    But its fall was announced by a clearer omen than the flight of vultures: the American government appeared every day less formidable to its enemies of liberty, more odious and oppressive to its subjects.

  3. Washington D.C's Primary Export by Phoenix666 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    is corruption and problems. They ought to be excised and punished as a rogue state. Note, I'm not a right- or left-wing partisan, just an American who grew up when this country was known as the "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave."

    The TSA ought to be expunged as the totalitarian body they are. The Department of Homeland Security ought to be dissolved and its members stripped of their citizenship and exiled to North Korea on the basis of the name of their agency alone.

    The FBI, CIA, NSA, DIA, and their attendant bodies need to be spanked firmly for violating the constitutional rights of all Americans over the last 20 years. That means, their Directors and employees who issued and obeyed illegal orders ought to go to prison for the rest of their lives.

    If that happened, I'd reckon the integrity of the Republic to have been preserved. But I'm not naive, and I know that that will never happen.

    As such, the only answer is for American citizens to bring the government and its backers to justice by force. As a man of peace and a father, I don't relish that at all. But neither do I want my kids to grow up as slaves.

    It's sobering indeed to contemplate another 20 years loving and nurturing my family in an increasingly totalitarian country vs. a personal life-ending confrontation with tyranny in the name and cause of freedom. But in my heart I can't see any other way. I was raised a patriot. In my mind and heart I meant the oath we all took to uphold and defend the freedom America stood for. But now the unthinkable has happened and the political entity known as the United States has so far departed from the premise of the oath we took that we cannot possibly reconcile the two; we can either support the path of freedom, or we can uphold the United States.

    I know that enough of my compatriots, supposed "left" and "right," share that conviction to make a difference. I know that the subversion of our freedom is not yet widespread enough and deep enough to reverse that bedrock faith. I know that despite the prevalent apathy, supported and abetted by those in power, there is not enough corrosion to avert the will of the American people to assert their freedom.

         

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    Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
  4. Re:Telling idiots what they want to hear... by DigiShaman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Compare our public education today to the previous years before it in sequential order. Part of the problem is that teachers are not held accountable as they once were. You can equally thank both the teachers union and parents for that. Also, the teachers that do genuinely care are not (by law) allowed to discipline children appropriately. Effectively we now have daycare for teens in which they call the shots. Eventually they will have children on their own. Some of these new adults go on to become teachers themselves while others run for public office. Parents forget how to be parents, and children carry the torch from hell onto the next generation.

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    Life is not for the lazy.
  5. Fuck you people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    I'm out of here.

  6. Re:Please tell me why.... by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Perhaps you're not. But why do you keep electing people who epitomize exactly what you describe?

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    People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D