Internet vulnerability... my take on it (Internet kill switch)
There is often concern over the ICANN and DNS registries being handed over to the United Nations and other entities. It will often result in people talking about how it gives them the ability to shut down the internet.
It actually does not.
They can certainly have an impact on the internet, but it is important to understand how the internet operates and some of your fears can be headed off.
Source: wikipedia.org
Some parts of the internet
TCP/IP Protocol is the IP addresses that you will often see, but likely will not use as they are not as easy to remember. What is known as IPv4 or Internet Protocol Version 4 had 4 bytes of addresses that were possible. Some of these were already allocated (set aside) for very specific things. There are some of these set aside to be use by private networks (meaning LAN or local) and they are the most common you will see. They fall within the 10.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x, and 172.16.x.x - 172.32.x.x range. Those will not be used to identify a computer on the INTERNET which we can call WAN (wide area network) in this case. The Internet is built from public IPs that are numbers from 1-255 in the x.x.x.x pattern. That is IPv4. We've been running low on IP addresses for the public space for some time so they have had an IPv6 ready to replace it for some time, but IPv4 is still very much entrenched and seems loathe to release it's existence. As a network engineer for the company I work for I work exclusively with IPv4 addresses on my network. We have not yet switched to IPv6 and neither have most of the agencies and clients we work with.
So computers and devices on a network are given an IP address. If it is a LAN IP address then to reach the internet (WAN) they must go through a router. Your modem if you have one from an ISP is also a router. This router is what is known a gateway for your LAN. The router will have an IP address itself from the internet provider and it will know an IP address for a gateway on your ISPs network that it must talk to in order to reach out.
This communication on the IP address level which is what people are concerned about when it comes to ICANN is how the internet works. IP addresses are known as Layer 3 in the world of networking. That is a network layer. They run on top of Layer 2 which is the data link layer. Some other things do happen at the data link layer. I am not going to delve too deeply into them as that is not necessary for explaining why I am not terribly concerned about the ICANN being in UN or other hands.
Source: wikipedia.org
BGP or Border Gateway Protocol actually tells the routers around the internet how to find public IP addresses. If you purchase a block of 255 addresses (smallest that can be routed via BGP also known as a /24) your ISP will setup their BGP tables such that the internet becomes aware that all traffic for those 255 addresses should pass through them. This is also where routing comes in. BGP also facilitates support for alternate routes when they cannot reach a set of IP addresses by another way.
Source: wikipedia.org
DNS or Domain Name System has one major job. It's job is to make the internet easier for humans to interact with. It is much easier to type www.google.com than it is to type 216.58.217.4. So a DNS servers job is to translate words into numbers. It does have more abilities and purposes beyond that, but that is it at the basic level. We also like to use domain names rather than IPs in a lot of development, because you can move to another location with a different IP address and simply repoint your DNS name you own to the new IP address and your program works without you having to change anything. If you used IP addresses all over in the program you would have to manually go through and change all of those addresses to the new address.
Source: wikipedia.org
So what happens when they kill the internet?
There is always fear of them killing the internet. They certainly can do certain things and they could disrupt it all for a short period of time. For more long term effect they work with the LECs (local exchange carriers) and if the LECs cooperate they could be fairly long term effective in their region. Yet this would not be done via DNS or ICANN registries.
Source: www.dhcs.ca.gov - this is an example of LEC regions just in California.
To kill the internet you need to block traffic at junctions, and/or reroute BGP and DNS.
The thing about BGP and DNS is that network engineers can reprogram those things on their own equipment so if a large local DNS or BGP began causing problems I could route around it and slowly build my own. So if the internet were knocked down at a DNS or BGP level it would begin to spring back up as people routed around it and took over some of the duties they were delegating elsewhere.
It is the human element such as people rioting that would be a bigger issue.
Source: giphy.com
As to shutting it down at the junctions the people that would likely shut it down also tend to use the internet so it likely would not be completely shut down.
In addition, more and more phone systems are going off of regular analog copper wire land line based systems and switching to VoIP (Voice over IP). This is happening on a very large scale even with the large carriers. I am aware as this is the business I am in. In these cases without the internet the phone communications would also be down.
Source: wikipedia.org
How could it be shut down?
The term LEC or local carrier most often refers to some entity that has a government mandated monopoly in a region. You can tell who they are when you try to purchase an internet circuit and you realize that the local cable company that is dominant has their own network, and other than that no matter who you purchase from they tend to go through one local carrier. In my area it is CenturyLink. In other parts of the country it is Verizon, or Light Tower, or AT&T, etc. If I buy a DS3 circuit from the carrier XO in my area they will say SURE. The last mile though and where it actually connects at my location will be CenturyLink. I basically have two choices in my area. A circuit running over Comcast, or a circuit running over CenturyLink's last mile. This is a common pattern all over the United States. I do not know if it is the same in other countries but it would not surprise me if this is the case there as well.
Source: www.fastcompany.com
So if they got cooperation from all of these major carriers in every region, the carriers could shut down the internet by effectively shutting off everyone's circuits. As you can imagine this would be large scale and require a lot of coordination. It would not be doable from ICANN or DNS Registry. Other than for a short term until people changed their BGP and DNS not to accept propagation from them. So it could happen, but it could also be fixed with some time. If people don't panic and riot and give people a chance to fix it. That is a BIG if.
Source: newsletter.followersofyah.com
A note about DNS. Popular public DNS servers people like to use are 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4 which are owned by Google. If google decides to block certain sites or reroute them to a different IP address they can do this on those DNS servers and anyone who uses them would be impacted by those routes. In addition, DNS works by propagation. DNS servers talk to each other. "Hey I have a new address change", "Thanks I will update my tables and spread the word." so the changes made WILL impact many DNS servers. However, DNS servers override any information with anything explicitly set up. I can literally map an address name (domain name) on my PC to a specific IP address and it will use what I tell it, rather than what the DNS server says. This can be done at a DNS level as well. So if the DNSes were taken down, they could be replaced, it'd simply be slow.
Source: www.routercheck.com
Closing
There are a lot of other factors that come into play and the possibility of an internet kill switch being in existence could be real to some degree. I personally am more concerned about the power grid, and the potential human problems from riots and such.
Source: beprepared.com
This is also a deep subject and if I got any of the technical aspects wrong in my rush to ease concerns feel free to comment and offer corrections.
Resources for further research:
Wikipedia:
- Private Network - aka LAN
- IPv4
- IPv6
- Regional Internet Registry
- Border Gateway Protocol - aka BGP
- Domain Name System - aka DNS
- Local Exchange Carrier - aka LEC
- Data Link Layer - aka Layer 2
- Network Layer - aka Layer 3
- Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - aka ICANN
- Internet Kill Switch
- Internet Protocol Suite
- Address Resolution Protocol - aka ARP
- Internet
- Voice over IP - aka VoIP
Excellent article! In former times I worked as an IT-Administrator, later as a team-leader of techies, now I organise IT-projetcs (sometimes).
upvoted and resteemed. I wish you more visibility at the wales!
Some words corrected in spelling.
I kept giving some long replies to people and I thought it'd be easier to just write a blog on it.
just owndering are oyu allegic to using all teh letetrs thta ocurr in sum wordz ?
DOesn't matter to me as long as I know what they were trying to say. :)
lol sorry my poor attempt at homour : )
There are spelling Nazis so some people are serious about that. I know some intelligent people that suck at grammar and spelling. So pretty much I leave them be as long as I know what they are trying to say. After all the important thing is whether we can communicate or not. I don't care if they forgot to call me Sir, Dr, or Mr. :) So if you were joking without an indicator I thought you were being a Nazi. :p
Yes I understand language tone of intent can be overlooked in the written word, I will be more careful to add humour and smiley faces and lol's etc so people can read more about if I am irritated or trying to make a joke : )
I myself am more used to a different communication medium than this forum type posting, maybe I should study up on some online writing etiquette ; )
After all if your goal is to NETWORK with people, it is pointless having them MUTE you over a silly misunderstanding ; plus 49% of the people herein are stupidier than me, so I must remember to make allowances for that as well LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL . . .
ROFL ; )
The crowd here is pretty intelligent. Intelligent people can be very prone to their own cognitive dissonance too.... get an idea we think is great and won't let go of it like a badger in a death grip.
I don't know that there is an etiquette I can recommend. :) Never have seen one and they are just opinions. Me I just view it as communication. Did I know what you were trying to say? If so. I respond with the intent. Though it is easy to screw this up. I've been written up at a job for people misreading the intent in what I wrote. So it will happen.
Thank you for your hints, @crok.
Some spelling improved.
nice to meet you : ) may your SP grow and attract interest ! ! !
The people claiming the internet can be turned off don't really know how the internet works... I hear this from the older generation mainly :)
I recall the outrage of the Superior Court Judge who told the person to shut off his internet website that was sharing pirated movies.
When the person started to explain he cold not the Judge threatened to throw him in jail for contempt ...
The accused patiently explained the judge could do whatever he liked but with p2p peer to peer direct transfers that would not stop the sharing of copyrighted movies.
I do not recall what the judge decided but he had a hard time understanding the website did not actually handle the sharing of the media files ! ! !
Personally I would have just thrown the guy in jail since I doubt a Judge gets to simply throw people in jail for contempt very often, after all if he was not guilty of Contempt of Court he must have been guilty of some crime somewhere in his long life ; )
A lot of people end of fined or in prison because of people sitting in judgement on things they do not understand.
That is hilarious! They need to start updating the laws so these judges can keep up to speed on technology!
I recall the uproar when the Secretary of the Interior stated she had not used email for over ten years. She said she carrys two phones and human speeches anyone she needs to communicate with ! ! !
Crazy people : )
note I said Secretary of the INTERIOR not Hilary ; )
People that let Alex Jones get them all paniced too. Which is why I wrote this post. Could it be impacted? Sure. Could we fix it... sure, just don't riot and give us some time.
Riots rarely help anything... although when my internet went down last month and the company told me it would be back up in 3 days... I just about rioted!
Have not these groups been basically running the system for years already ? Why is it to be considered a problem to give them formal control. My best guess is some politician needed a fear topic to engender a media release and photo opportunity due to the November elections, that persons speech writers simply choose ICANN ! ! !
Anyone who tries to take the internet away from big business and political propaganda strategists and drug cartels and the modern military are very likely to end u lying forever in a shallow grave under a layer of tree leaves . . .
People who have spent years manipulating a system to their advantage are very unlikely to thank anyone who simply decides to pull the plug and switch it all off; personally this is a "power-down" we are unlikely to see anytime soon ; )
Yep, I found myself responding to posts where people were afraid of this. So rather than writing continued responses in the form of a lengthy response I decided to make a post about it. Way faster in the long run to have something I already wrote to reference.
Awesome idea to have a canned response prearranged , adds so much credibility to your cyber image . . .
In fact ; I feel a " resteem " ' coming-on ' ! ! !
Well crap I virtually live on the internet, I travel between Australia and America so my physical address is virtually " cyberspace ". But if the web went down and the net went dark I think I would not suffer a seizure or anything, maybe I would simply pick up a b -o -o -k ! ! !
Heh. Exactly. Or see if there is anything you can do to contribute to getting it back online. ;)
back online ? depends if Steemit type minnow's are still swimming around 2 network with : ) otherwise I myself would probably just leave the internet ' off ' ; )
Hahaha
Thank you for posting this well written fact filled article. Yes, we need information 'before we go off half cocked ' as they used to say.
Superb post @dwinblood!
I saw that episode too on South Park(I am refering to the gif that you put) ....and hey it could be many other reasons as well can be a natural thing ...like a meteor strike or earthquake that somehow damages all the tech that we have...(for sci fi purpose only we imagine that olso satelites get destroyed).
But...on a personal level ...look...I am from Romania...here ..ugh...well...internet doesnt really affect this country...I mean we are in the first countries for internet power connection providers but..really now ...the are some places in my country where some people dont even know about internet.
If suddenly it will be no more internet for me and many other people, our life will continue with no stress, riots or killings.
Our live will just continue to be the same as always...witch is ...well...crap!
I am old enough and from rural parts of the U.S. I remember pre-internet. I own a cell phone because I need one for work. I am not a fan of phones. I honestly could survive just fine without the internet, though my job would no longer exist. I've lived a good portion of my life without it.
I do think it is an important invention though and I'd do whatever I could to restore it.
There is valid concern over an 'internet' takeover. It always starts with seemingly small steps ICANN's role and when you least expect it the 'politics' rolls in explaining away very legitimate concerns.
Please view this video by Senator Cruz on YouTube to get a better understanding Sen. Cruz Urges Colleagues to Stop Obama's Internet Giveaway
and please review H.R. 1212 Internet Freedom Act
It is not so much that they won't try to do it. I am speaking of it from a purely technological aspect. With the way networking is setup now they CANNOT shut it down for long. They could disrupt it but people like me could immediately start working on our network equipment and restore it bit by bit. SO law or no law there are technological limitations they cannot overcome. Another thing about modern day law makers, most of them don't really grasp how this technology works.
Neat article, thank you!