The Internet Could Crash. We Need A Plan B
Sounds crazy doesn't it? Surprise! It's already happened. Granted it hasn't been on a large scale but, how long should we wait for the internet on a whole to go down without preparing for?
I watched a speech given at TED Talks by Danny Hillis. Danny Hillis is an inventor, scientist, author and engineer. While completing his doctorate at MIT, he pioneered the concept of parallel computers that is now the basis for most supercomputers, as well as the RAID array.
He used a visual of a directory of all the email addresses that were in use in 1982 and the names, addresses and phone numbers of the people who owned the email addresses. He spoke about how the internet was basically built on trust and how those ideas were actually built into the protocols of the internet. "The basic idea of I.P., or Internet protocol, and the way that the -- the routing algorithm that used it, were fundamentally "from each according to their ability, to each according to their need." And so, if you had some extra bandwidth, you'd deliver a message for someone. If they had some extra bandwidth, they would deliver a message for you. You'd kind of depend on people to do that, and that was the building block."
"So the fact is that there's a lot of bad guys on the Internet these days, and so we dealt with that by making walled communities, secure subnetworks, VPNs, little things that aren't really the Internet but are made out of the same building blocks, but we're still basically building it out of those same building blocks with those same assumptions of trust. And that means that it's vulnerable to certain kinds of mistakes that can happen, or certain kinds of deliberate attacks, but even the mistakes can be bad."
He gave several examples of how recently mistakes or possible mistakes have happened. How in Asia they couldn't get YouTube videos because of something that Pakistan had done to censor their county, or how a few years ago airplanes west of the Mississippi were grounded due all because of a single bad router card in Salt Lake City. He also talked about an incident that happened last April where a very large portion of the internet traffic including traffic between US Military bases was routing through China. China said how this supposedly was an honest mistake.
We just had a bomber blow up two bombs at the Boston Marathon this week, and that was an act of terrorism. Pictures were posted of the suspects today. While we are fighting against these sorts of attacks against our country and countries everywhere why can't we start by getting proactive with our defenses. We already do this at airports. There are drills for tornado's, fires, and now lockdown drills in the wake of recent mass shootings. The police even have simulations of events where they practice what to do in the event of something happening. What are we going to do? When will we do it? Just how will we do it whatever it may be that needs to be done in the event of something happening.
There have been several instances where internet sites have gone down or a site was hacked. There was even in instance where a nuclear plant's centrifuges were damaged by in infected USB drive that was smuggled into the factory. Banks have been hacked and personal information has been lost. Medical facilities have have been hacked and medical records stolen. You can read daily about how this site or that site is down due to hackers. As you can see mistakes happen and portions of the internet go down and attacks happen.
We need a Plan B set up in case something happens? We need a way for our infrastructure to survive an attack against it. We plan for a lot of things but this is something we haven't given enough consideration to plan for it. The time isn't after something has happened the time is right now this very second and if enough people are talking about and worrying enough about this and most importantly speaking to their representatives about it this is something we can get to take place prior to a devastating disaster takes place.
What do you think?
What do you think?
Very interesting. The examples that were given to back up the idea were excellent and kept me interested. Your review was also very good and intrigued me as well.
ReplyDeleteI remember a movie by Bruce Willis called Live Free or Die Hard, the movie was talking a bout a cyber-terrorist attack on the US which they called it Fire Sale.
ReplyDeleteThe hackers was able to make a financial crisis by attacking wall street, control the traffic and take down the electricity.
Basically every thing now is connected with the internet as the presenter said even the simple task like pumping gas.
We defiantly need a backup plane or as he called it plan B.
I found the example of censorship in Asia to be interesting. Hopefully it never gets to that point here in America.
ReplyDeleteIf there was already a Plan B, would they even tell us? That would just be another challenge for hackers to get into. What I found interesting is that Pakistan was able to get into China's system and China was able to change ours. You would think any country would have a lock out of some type to ward off entry by anyone.
ReplyDeleteI'm praying that we never need a Plan B as well. You would think that they would have to tell us, our entire county is using the internet in one form or another. Our country's infrastructure is built on the backbone of the internet e.g., power grids, medical services, banking, airlines, if you take any one of those down and you've succeeded in shutting down that city or worse country. I doubt any of us could afford that disaster.
ReplyDeleteYour report was very interesting concerning how our military and other major institution websites can be in danger of being hacked and intruded upon by people against the United States. I wonder too if there is a pan B and hope that there is one. I was in the military for a long time and I would hope that there is a plan B. You did a good job on this report. Also with use of the internet, it was very helpful in finding out for example those bombing suspects in Boston who were captured. Like anything else there will be good points or advantages and bad points or disadvantaged concerning the internet. It seems just like about 66 years ago when TV was introduced to the public that concerning the internet you can't live with out it. Good job once again.
ReplyDeleteWow, it does sound crazy, who would thought that the internet could crash? nowadays almost everything we do is trough the internet, if the internet crashes it would be a disaster
ReplyDeleteI would keep my stuff on my pc important and stuff like pic I would put it on a cloud. Like, Juan said it would be a major disaster.
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