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Shaping Preventive Policy in “Cyber War” and Cyber Security: A Pragmatic Approach

Published in Journal of Cyber Security and Information Systems
Volume: 1 Number: 1 - Welcome to the CSIAC
Author: Tony Guo
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On January 28th, 2011, Egypt disappeared from the global map. In a coordinated shutdown of all major Egyptian internet service providers–an effort by its government to squelch public dissent-
-virtually all Egyptian Internet addresses became unreachable worldwide.1 The action was unprecedented in Internet history.2 At the same time, the U.S. Senate introduced a bill that would give the President the same power to shutdown “critical” Internet infrastructure in the event of a “national cyber emergency.”3 This bill and others like it were introduced in light of the political rhetoric on “cyber war.”

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  1. See Ryan Singel, Egypt Shut Down Its Net With a Series of Phone Calls, Wired, Jan. 28, 2010, available at http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/01/egypt-ispshutdown/.
  2. See Id.
  3. S. 3480, 111th Cong. (2009), available at http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-773. Strangely enough, this bill actually purports to “limit” the President’s existing power to shut down Internet infrastructure under Section 706 of the Communications Act of 1934. See infra Section V(A). The bill ultimately failed
  4. See frontline: cyberwar!: introduction | PBS, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cyberwar/etc/synopsis.html (last visited Nov. 7, 2011).
  5. Richard A. Clarke, Cyber War 67 (HarperCollins 2010).
  6. Id. at 67.
  7. See J. Nicolas Hoover, Former Intelligence Chief: U.S. Would Lose Cyberwar, InformationWeek, Feb. 23, 2010, available at http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=223100425.
  8. See Richard A. Clarke – Partner, Good Harbor Consulting, http://www.goodharbor.net/team/clarke.php (last visited Nov. 12, 2010).
  9. See John M. McConnell – Executive Vice President, Booz, Allen, & Hamilton, http://www.boozallen.com/about/leadership/executive-leadership/ McConnell (last visited Nov. 12, 2010). See also Ryan Singel, Cyberwar Doomsayer Lands $34 Million in Government Cyberwar Contracts, Wired, Apr. 13, 2010, available at http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/04/booz-allen/.
  10. See DOD Announces First U.S. Cyber Command and First U.S. CYBERCOM Commander, U.S. Defense Department, May 21, 2010, http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=13551.
  11. See also Seymour Hersh, The Online Threat, The New Yorker, Nov. 1, 2010, available at http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/11/01/101101fa_fact_hersh

Author

Tony Guo
Tony Guo
Tony S. Guo is an IT and legal consultant with over 10 years of web development experience. He holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Purdue University, and a J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law. Through his career, Tony has used web technologies to enhance legal advocacy, from writing databases for legal services, to designing websites for community organizations. He has spoken on cyberwar and international law at the University of Leipzig, and on legal outreach and the web at Harvard University. Tony is a strong advocate for network neutrality, and believes in a maintaining an open and unbiased domain.

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