While many Network World readers thought the on a bill introduced April 1 in the Senate concerning cybersecurity was an April Fools' gag, it was not.

"This was an April Fools, right? Please say that it was," one reader wrote.

The bill was introduced by West Virginia Democratic Sen. John Rockefeller, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Republican from Maine.

The sweeping legislation included a provision to give the president the power to "order the disconnection of any Federal government or United States critical infrastructure information systems or networks in the interest of national security."

Critics of the measure said the provision needed to be more clearly defined, but expected the Internet, along with telecommunications and banking systems, to fall under "critical infrastructure."