The President and Internet Traffick - 996 Words

Research Paper 2: Do you think it is a good idea for the President of the United States to have the authority to limit or shutdown internet traffic to and from any compromised federal government or U.S. critical infrastructure information system or network? Why or why not? Yes and no. For the general public, I don’t think limiting the internet would be a wise idea. Our country was founded on freedom, and to infringe upon that would cause civil unrest. Frankly, the general public would assume that the government was up to something nefarious, even if they were trying to protect the American interest. ‘Those who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither.’ – Benjamin Franklin. However, to limit or monitor the internet in government buildings the way most corporations do, I see no problem with this. That would basically be the same as the IT security protocols that are enforced in corporate America. Our government secrets need to be guarded and protected at all costs. Therefore, any inter- or intranet that can access any government site or network should be monitored. Many countries do limit the internet that their citizens can access. These are the same countries that we in our, public opinion, hold ourselves above because we are more ‘civilized’. Most of these countries are afraid of their citizens, it seems. The internet gives people the ability to connect with each other virtually instantaneously and with people that we may have not met otherwise. In a country