Cybersecurity bill changes, US president not permitted to shut down the Internet

Six months ago, two bills regarding cybersecurity were introduced in the US senate and a lot of people objected to the possibility that the bills would allow the US president to shut down the Internet in case of a cyber emergency.

It seems that the general outcry against this plan has managed to get the legislators to change this provision, since a new version of one of the bills (n. 773) has been introduced on Tuesday, and – according to InformationWeek – in it the president no longer has the power to decide by himself the disconnection of networks from the Internet, but must consult with the organizations that own the infrastructure and they must decide how to respond to the emergency together.

The new version also requires the president to consult with the private sector when forming an overview of the systems that are paramount to national security and plans on how to defend them.