[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Why what happened to the Internet in Syria couldn't happen here here

[deviltaz41]

It would be good if it could happen for just one week or so just so people get back to basics and actually talk to each other face to face.

[thewazak]

"Countries such as China .... also at fairly low risk"

So tell me how the Chinese authorities can disable pretty well any service they wish - at a moments notice?
If they can, so can the US - if they decide to.
It's called La La land not believing.

And lets not hear anyone say "But the US wouldn't do it"
It hasn't been deemed "necessary" yet.

[Vegasexcitement]

We are just as open to a complete internet shut down as the smaller less developed countries. Thru an organised denial of sevice attack from without or win in, we could no longer have access to our main servers, and "poof" in domino action, like a power grid, oout they go.
You drop one, then all the traffic would try to shift to the other servers, then they are DSA'd, They cannot handle the load, and out they go and shift to the remaining, and they shift to the remaining...and soon, you have to pay your bills by mail for a few days. These people are dangerous and just like in High School you hit the guy at his weakest point, and down he goes. We live in a world full of dangerous people that from a basement apartment develop ideas and things that are sick. Don't think in a minute that we do ot have vulnerabilities.

[Vegasexcitement]

The US, for "national security", can disable the internet at the flip of a switch. If they can ground the planes in a moments notice for a valid reason, they can do this as well. To think that it cannot be done is to believe in Mother Goose as well.

[ronin7752]

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The US, for "national security", can disable the internet at the flip of a switch. If they can ground the planes in a moments notice for a valid reason, they can do this as well. To think that it cannot be done is to believe in Mother Goose as well.

Anyone who thinks that grounding air traffic and "switching off the Internet" are even *remotely* similar, probably *is* Mother Goose.

[IT4all]

If you think it can't be shut off you'd be living in the matrix. The internet can be shut off in a moments notice. All the services are controlled by just a few major ISP's. They can shut it off easily on orders from Obama.
Anyone who think otherwise is sniffing glue.

[symbolset]

Of course it can be done. And there are operation plans (OPLANs) for doing it. To not have them would be irresponsible. Isolating the US from external networks isn't just an isolation maneuver to contain domestic information - it's also a defense against external cyber threats.

It won't be done, but that's a different question.

[waldojim]

Just in case people here really don't understand this: you don't have to kill it at the major ISPs. You kill it with the core network. The long haul networks running 100GigE fiber connections (well mostly 10gigE or high bandwidth DWDM OC) are owned by a handful of companies. Level 3, ATT, Sprint, and Verizon are the big players here. If the government gives them the word to kill off the core routers, the internet and all phone systems go down. It is that simple. Without long-haul communications, we have no internet. If you guys actually saw how the network looked, you might actually be a bit terrified as to how fragile the whole thing really is.

Even assuming a single company is delayed in taking down the network, it wouldn't matter, as they all route traffic through each other. Verizon doesn't route 100% of its traffic through their own network across country, they use as much 3rd party as their own. This holds true for ATT, Sprint, etc just as well. And it is done for good reason. Why lay fiber through Montana (for example) if your competition already has done it for you, and you have a reciprocating agreement with them? You simply offer up bandwidth in another state that they need, and both companies are happy. Yes, for long haul, this actually works.

For anyone thinking "oh well, we will just use local DNS", first, how far do you think that will get you? Second, do you know where the Google, Amazon, or even Associated Press servers are hosted? Are they even remotely near you? Do you think the government won't take their time taking down local networks as they have time?

This post has been edited by waldojim: 03 December 2012 - 01:20 AM

[Szczecinianin]

The number of ISPs doesn't really matter as the govt knows EXACTLY where they all are and can pull the plug on each and every one of them. It's only a matter of time. Internet is no Skynet and CAN be turned off even in the US.

[patepluma]

An easy way to explain to non-techies. Show them a map of North America. Imagine you want to shut down all road traffic into the province of Nova Scotia in Canada. Now imagine you want to shut down all road traffic into the US state of Pennsylvania. That's the Internet.

[RNR19952]

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It would be good if it could happen for just one week or so just so people get back to basics and actually talk to each other face to face.

Agree

I would settle for just putting down the phones when out to dinner...LOL

[ConnorMeeblings]

So shutting down the core services and routers that direct the internet would stop all internet traffic, but what if they want to disconnect from external sources and allow the internet to run inside the US but not go in or out? That'd be much more complicated than simply power outing all the ISPs.

[waldojim]

ConnorMeeblings, on 06 December 2012 - 06:20 AM, said:

So shutting down the core services and routers that direct the internet would stop all internet traffic, but what if they want to disconnect from external sources and allow the internet to run inside the US but not go in or out? That'd be much more complicated than simply power outing all the ISPs.

Not hardly. We only have a few trans continental links, very easily disconnected.