Three U.S. senators criticized for past legislation that would allow the president to potentially quarantine or shut down parts of the Internet during a major cyberattack have introduced a new bill that would put limits on that authority.
U.S senators will introduce legislation this year targeting websites that traffic in digital piracy or counterfeited goods, said the primary sponsor of a controversial bill proposed in 2010 that would give government agencies more authority to shut down those sites.
A U.S. court has shut down an online operation that allegedly posed as the U.S. government and charged customers fees between US$200 and $2,500 for immigration processing fees at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, although the operation was not affiliated with the agency, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced Monday.
The appearance of the Stuxnet worm in June should serve as a wake-up call to governments and businesses, especially those relying on Internet-based industrial control systems, a group of cybersecurity experts told U.S. lawmakers Wednesday.
A new cyberattack exercise hosted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security this week reflects the increasingly sophisticated attacks U.S. agencies and businesses face, DHS officials said.