Obama 'Internet kill switch' plan approved by US Senate panel - Techworld.com

Obama 'Internet kill switch' plan approved by US Senate panel - Techworld.com:

A US Senate committee has approved a wide-ranging cybersecurity bill that some critics have suggested would give the US president the authority to shut down parts of the Internet during a cyberattack.

Senator Joe Lieberman and other bill sponsors have refuted the charges that the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act gives the president an Internet 'kill switch.' Instead, the bill puts limits on the powers the president already has to cause 'the closing of any facility or stations for wire communication' in a time of war, as described in the Communications Act of 1934, they said in a breakdown of the bill published on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee website."