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Re:Internet 'kill switch' proposed for US by Devilboy on Thursday June 17, 2010 @06:38AM (#1438461)
Any kind of attack can already be filtered by the top tier ISPs around the country, and if it's really serious they'll unplug anything Obama asks them to. I just don't see how any kind of mass internet attacks can be a real threat to the USA.

We've had bad things happen on the internet so many times that we're pretty much immune to them now.

Re:Internet 'kill switch' proposed for US by mschaecher on Thursday June 17, 2010 @07:02AM (#1438497)
Agreed, not to mention that the real bread and butter of our nations military and intelligence networks are completely separate from what we know as the internet.

There is a huge difference between taking, say, whitehouse.gov or army.mil down verse our real command and control networks--which are probably next to impossible to take down considering there are layers upon layers of backup communication systems.

The idea of a "cyber-attack" being used as a first salvo in an act of war against the United States by any nation-state is pretty ludicrous, as it would minimally (if at all) affect our ability to destroy whoever was dumb enough to try it.

Re:Internet 'kill switch' proposed for US by SkyMarshal on Thursday June 17, 2010 @09:10AM (#1438747)
In a hot war, a cyber attack wouldn't be the opener, not strong enough relative to the response it would draw.

It would be something more Pearl Harborish, like a nuke or EMP detonated in space over the US that fries our communication networks and power grid.

In which case, this proposed kill switch would be redundant.

Re:Internet 'kill switch' proposed for US by mschaecher on Thursday June 17, 2010 @06:09PM (#1440564)
You nailed it. I was going to mention the EMP stuff, but backed away.

A high altitude nuclear detonation above the continental US is the first strike protocol for any nation-state that would try to attack us. Even then, a lot of our military's core command and control infrastructure has been hardened to withstand such an EMP for decades--as it was known that a high altitude detonation over US soil was the Soviet's plan for a first strike...That is why Cuba was such a big deal. Still, the EMP would completely decimate every non-hardened electrical system.

Re:Internet 'kill switch' proposed for US by SkyMarshal on Saturday June 19, 2010 @09:27AM (#1444604)
Yeah, the military systems may be able to survive, but it could cause mass havoc among the 300 million civilians, so still a decent first strike.
Re:Internet 'kill switch' proposed for US by mschaecher on Sunday June 20, 2010 @07:34PM (#1447420)
decent is an understatement