{"id":91281,"date":"2013-11-14T17:54:41","date_gmt":"2013-11-14T16:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/homeland-security-must-disclose-internet-kill-switch-court-rules\/"},"modified":"2013-11-14T19:12:07","modified_gmt":"2013-11-14T18:12:07","slug":"homeland-security-must-disclose-internet-kill-switch-court-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/homeland-security-must-disclose-internet-kill-switch-court-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Homeland Security must disclose \u2018Internet Kill Switch,\u2019 court rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>CJ Ciaramella<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2013\/nov\/13\/homeland-security-must-disclose-internet-kill-swit\/\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Times<\/a><br \/>\nNovember 14, 2013<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A literal kill switch, which is what DHS practically wants for the Internet. Credit: wlodi via Flickr<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must disclose its plans for a so-called Internet \u201ckill switch,\u201d a federal court ruled on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The United States District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the agency&#8217;s arguments that its protocols surrounding an Internet kill switch were exempt from public disclosure and ordered the agency to release the records in 30 days. However, the court left the door open for the agency to appeal the ruling.<\/p>\n<p>The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is seeking \u201cStandard Operating Procedure 303,\u201d also known as the \u201cInternet kill switch\u201d from Homeland Security. The protocols govern shutting down wireless networks to prevent the remote detonation of bombs.<\/p>\n<p>The broad government power to shut down communications networks worries civil libertarians. However, the agency argues the protocols must be kept secret to protect national interests and the safety of individuals.<\/p>\n<p>EPIC filed a FOIA request for the protocols in July 2012. The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/department-of-homeland-security\/\">Department of Homeland Security<\/a>\u00a0originally said it could not find any records on the kill switch.<\/p>\n<p>After EPIC appealed, the agency located the protocol, but redacted nearly all of the information. The agency cited exemptions that allow the withholding of information that could \u201cdisclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions\u201d or \u201ccould reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/united-states-district-court\/\">court<\/a>\u00a0said Homeland Security wrongly claimed that it could withhold Standard Operating Procedure 303 as a \u201ctechnique for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/supreme-court\/\">court<\/a>\u00a0also found that interpreting a safety exemption to \u201cencompass possible harm to anyone anywhere in the United States within the blast radius of a hypothetical unexploded bomb also flies in the face of repeated\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/supreme-court\/\">Supreme Court<\/a>\u00a0direction to read FOIA exemptions narrowly.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>While the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/supreme-court\/\">court<\/a>\u00a0rejected the agency\u2019s broad interpretation of FOIA exemptions, it left the door open for further appeals by Homeland Security. The agency has 30 days to release the protocols to EPIC, but the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/supreme-court\/\">court<\/a>\u00a0issued a 30-day additional stay on its opinion to allow the agency time to appeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CJ Ciaramella Washington Times November 14, 2013 A literal kill switch, which is what DHS practically wants for the Internet. Credit: wlodi via Flickr The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must disclose its plans for a so-called Internet \u201ckill switch,\u201d a federal court ruled on Tuesday. The United States District Court for the District of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1213,"featured_media":91282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-91281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}