CNET News posted an article today on the beginning of curbing freedom of speech on the internet. The bill, S.773, includes the following according to Thomas.gov:
"Directs the Secretary to develop or coordinate a national licensing, certification, and recertification program for cybersecurity professionals and makes it unlawful to provide certain cybersecurity services without being licensed and certified.
"Requires Advisory Panel approval for renewal or modification of a contract related to the operation of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority.
"Requires development of a strategy to implement a secure domain name addressing system.
"Requires the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support specified types of research and to establish a program of grants to higher education institutions to establish cybersecurity testbeds.
"Amends the Cybersecurity Research and Development Act to expand the purposes of an existing program of computer and network security research grants.
"Requires the NSF to establish a Federal Cyber Scholarship-for-Service program.
"Requires NIST to establish cybersecurity competitions and challenges to recruit talented individuals for the federal information technology workforce and stimulate innovation."
I'm not very good at interpreting gobbelty gook, but the bottom line here seems obvious to me--the government wants control over the internet. I firmly believe that if President Obama's healthcare bill is defeated, there will be an attack on freedom of speech in talk radio and the internet, and cable news will attacked shortly thereafter. All of us who value freedom of speech need to be aware of what is happening around us and ready to combat it.
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