Bill Lets Obama Turn Off the Internet

He doesn't have to 'shut off the internet' he can just turn off your IP or block the MAC from your modem/router. This can all be done at the ISP. You can fantasize how hackers can create their own wireless network, but the reality is that you'll have no range unless you and next door timmy are going to talk to each other...then why not just go outside?

Originally posted by kernalpanic
He doesn't have to 'shut off the internet' he can just turn off your IP or block the MAC from your modem/router. This can all be done at the ISP. You can fantasize how hackers can create their own wireless network, but the reality is that you'll have no range unless you and next door timmy are going to talk to each other...then why not just go outside?

I think you misunderstand the nature of such a wireless network, you and timmy get connected... then timmy connects to johnny across town, johnny can reach someone at the next town, they can reach people in other towns that are too far for you and johnny. The equipment is very cheap now, there are businesses cropping up all over offering internet for people stuck places with no phone lines/cable, the range of just this cheap equipement is a few miles.

You build up a network like this of lots of low power connections, all bouncing the signals around between each other, and forwarding each others packets. In many way's it's similar to how a lot of the internet already works, just with less emphasis on backbones, it's more of a true decentralised peer to peer network.

[edit on 9/4/2009 by RubberBaron]

I read the whole Bill and didn't see one instance where Obama can "shut the internet off." First off, you can't just shut off the internet, it's not centralized at all. The only thing I could see in that Bill is they are trying to make government networks and financial networks more secure by enacting panels of nonprofit organizations that will basically create reports about security. I assume this is stemming from the recent discovery of how unsecure our government and financial networks really are. Don't worry, Obama isn't going to take away ATS. I wish i could unstar posts.

Originally posted by ElectroMagnetic Multivers
And it begins.

Next they will claim that Conficker is in too deep and it must be stopped, at any costs!

/delete [internet]
/insert [New Internet]
/Make websites apply for 'licenses'
/Guess the rest

I'm actually dissapointed in them, they are getting so transparent the more arrogant and confident they become.

EMM

[edit on 8-4-2009 by ElectroMagnetic Multivers]

/Not touching MY machine. And I run a server when I need to. Makes me part of the internet.

Might not get many US hits but then, there is the rest of the world to think about.

They can't just "shut down" the internet. If they did, do you realize how many businesses rely on the internet? How many people will lose jobs? For example the company Blizzard, they are an online video game company. And for just one of their games they have over 8 million subscribers.

If they were just to "shut down" the internet. All that business would be gone. And everyone working in that company would be poor and riots would most likely break out.

If the government were to ever shut down the internet...Well that would just be stupid on their behalf.

Originally posted by mithrawept
I think this is a real threat.

I've been looking at Tor networks. Check out: Tor

If the internet is really shutdown, it could be a way of keeping ATS 'on the air' or forming information cells.

Tor wont help you at all if the rug is pulled out from under you.

You still need internet access to access tor. Meaning, you still need an ISP who has access to more than itself, more than your own country and generally access to the normal internet.

This is getting a bit nutty.

Something is wrong.

Here we have a president who was to bring change, after 8 miserable years of speculation of a dark future. Why is it that none of the NEGATIVE stuff about him goes MSN? I am with relatives who absolutely worship Obama, and they only see the positive. When i said i was still on the fence because he has to prove himself to me or change the policies that take away our freedoms, they flip and say i'm NUTS.
He is God, according to some.
As i said before, i need to SEE big changes before i have any respect or affiliation with Obama.
As far as i can see he's a continuation of Bush so far.

As far as the Internet goes, let him shut it off, maybe if it goes down, the news may start spewing the truth for a change?????

I dont know - I cant trust anyone after Jr. I may need Butherapy after all.

[edit on 9-4-2009 by dgtempe]

Originally posted by crisko
As a Sys Admin for an ISP, I can tell you it would be impossible to turn off the internt. Sure, the U.S. could shut down the root servers, but other nations would jump at the chance to bring some of their own online. In fact, the U.S. is being pushed to do exactly this.

At most, all any goverment can to is filter what you can and cannot see, and you would never know it. I have been to China, Google appears to work fine if you lived there and didn't know any better. Searches only produce goverment "approved" results.

How do you know the U.S. / U.K. / E.U. isn't doing this to you? You wouldn't know.

This bill is designed to allow for more oversight into Financial Institutions as well as give the president the power to shut down government networks in the event of a breach (which would most likely come from China).



[edit on 8-4-2009 by crisko]

ARGH! You ruined an otherwise perfectly "hide under the bed" thread.

All this talk about rational stuff. Who let you in, the sign on the door says "NO Logical thinkers allowed!" on this thread. Sheesh.

Reminds me of arguing with someone from China in Soc.culture.australia many moons ago, who made a big hoopla about a website I pointed him to, and he thought I was making up lies because the website wouldnt load on his PC. Until at least half a dozen others reassured him the url was valid, he had no idea that a website that held China not in the best light, existed.

Zing, censorship. Until you feel it, you don't even know it's really there.

reply to post by star in a jar


Every president for 'AT LEAST' the past 100 years have been part of the global fraud, I think people need to wake up and stop blaming 'Obama' as he is just continuing the work that has been laid out since the founding of America, which has a lot to do with the freemasons, all Obama is..is a pawn that the 'torch (of illumination)' has been passed to, the sooner people wake up to this fact, the quicker Americans can right the wrongs of the past 100 years, Albert Pike is laughing in his grave....he might have already won i think sometimes

reply to post by dgtempe


You say you cant trust anyone since Jr. are you talking about the JFK...and the Kennedy family!?!?!?!?!?!

I believe he was talking about good ole Martin Luther.

King that is.

reply to post by toast317


I assume the Internet will be severely regulated. Not shut down.

This way people could still run a business, pay their bills online, etc.

They may simply control the search engines. We wouldnt have freedom to surf the Web.

Maybe a direct connection to a global database to run these operations. It's only a possible theory.

The internet cannot be shut off in one fell swoop. That is an urban legend and a myth. The internet is a collection of servers sharing content and clients accessing that information. The best thing the government could do is shut down certain backbones and disrupt traffic. That would keep you from hitting some sites but you could still access others.

But it doesn't make sense that the government would want to shut the internet off in the first place because they know this would seriously disrupt the economy.

Unless you honestly think the current administration is trying to destroy America? I'll go so far as to say I think Obama's liberal idealis are going to be bad for America but I do think he's doing what he believes is best for the country. He's inexperienced and incompetent at a lot of stuff, but I don't believe he's trying to destroy the country.

reply to post by ThirdJohnAdams


well thank god for that

reply to post by News And History


For starters, anyone who thinks that the internet can't be 'shut down.' ask the Chinese people if their government has any control over what they see. It may not be 'gone' but it is extremely dangerous.

There are numerous technological issues here, but the bottom line is that this feeds right into what usually precedes an invasion. You seize or destroy the communications mediums making sure only YOUR propaganda is heard.

The network is already a tool of the elite and will evolve to be even more so. We will be censored, tracked and denied access to information.

The way around this is pretty clear, sort of a CB type network that has already been tossed around on here. The problem with that is it will be illegal so there will be repercussions if they can catch you.

The wonderful thing about this country and it's people is the ability to improvise to fill a need.

It's already started to get really ugly and will get worse, but we will come out on the other side a lot better off...some of us anyway...

The Internet can be shut down. It's called controlling the ISPs.

You forget that the core routers that make up the 'net are often sited in Government secured locations. All it can take is quite literally for someone to pull the plug.

Originally posted by wonderworld
reply to post by 31337

 

You cant very well going around knocking off all the Bildebergs, G20, Illuminati Elites.

Many want to, however they would instantly be replaced to second in command.

There is no stopping it. I’m an optimist but this is different.

Protesting hasnt worked, calling our representitives hasnt worked. It's too big and well organized.

Who said you would knock off the top guys? Its the lower ones that have the real power. Anyhow Net Neutrality is a good thing. For those of you who think you can't turn off the internet, look at the great firewall of China. Yes it can be breached but the more its breached the more they figure out how to fix it. You might not be able to turn it off like flipping a switch and then suddenly its gone, its more like blocking stuff done at the ISP level. Look for St. Bernard content filters. Their products are meant for companies or homes and sit between your firewall and the internal network. Whoever controls the ISP's controls our portion of the net.

Originally posted by AlienChaser
reply to post by Jay-in-AR

They are going to try and make it a fair system to all. If they didn't, people wouldn't accept it... and overthrow them.

Point taken, but I think it will be more designed to appear to be fair, only to avoid a revolt. I think it is a dangerous gamble to believe that in the end will get this.

Eventually, the global monarchy will be replaced by a global republic, but there isn't any reason to force this. For forcing it will be to the detriment of everyone.

A united earth could be a very beneficial and desirable thing. The problem I have is with the way it's coming and the level of control that is appearing. I would like to be able to live in a worldwide community of peace and advancement, where our acheivements would be individual enlightenment and the betterment of mankind. This would truly be utopia. The risk is a humanity dominated by an elite group of eugenists who only want to better their own at the expence of everyone else.

I agree with your united Earth statement, however there is only 2 ways this could go. Freedom for the masses or slavery of the masses.

To elaborate on what many have already pointed out:

This has nothing to do with the government controlling, censoring, or destroying the Internet. On the contrary, this is a sign that the US government is finally taking the Internet seriously. There are plenty of reliable sources out there if you want to read up on this. Here's a recent BBC article:
BBC: Spies and Technology

This is actually a matter of national defense tactics. Technology experts have uncovered viruses that have already been implanted into some of the systems which run our nation's power grids. These programs are quoted as being sophisticated enough to suggest they were developed by state-sponsored hackers; in other words, foreign spies. This is of course a large security concern and warrants an appropriate response from the government.

The basic design of these viral programs is this: If activated, these programs could essentially overrun the power supply and cause it to shut down, affecting everything connected to that grid and potentially severing the electrical power across large regions of the country. Some replies to this thread have mentioned that you could "bring down" the Internet if you severed the power to the ISP's... well, let's just say that a cyber-attack of this magnitude could bring down a lot more than just the service providers. Now, it's only likely that a foreign country would try something like this in a time of war, since running such programs in peacetime would be a huge provocation. But nonetheless it's a risk that must be addressed.

So to conclude and reiterate: Government response to this issue, such as the bill mentioned in the OP, is not going to create a "new Internet," or censor the current one, or even allow for the remote possibility of somehow pressuring websites to buy licenses or what have you. What this kind of legislation does is essentially give the Commander in Chief a kind of turn-off switch which, if used, would simply turn off the internet connectivity of those systems deemed to be at risk from such an attack. In other words, if these viral programs -- which, I must remind, have already been discovered and are proven to exist -- were activated, placing the nation's power supply at risk, the President could order a kind of temporary Internet shortage to prevent the foreign hackers from being able to activate or otherwise control these programs. It is nothing more than a last minute resort for an unlikely, but also potentially dangerous, scenario. I doubt it would even have an effect on the average PC internet connection, like yours or mine, and even if it did it would be temporary and strictly for safety purposes. (To use it for anything other than that, if such a thing were even possible, would cause a huge uproar the likes of which no politician would ever want to behold).

- --= Magnus =-- -