The very notion that the Internet can be "shut down" at a single point of control shows the degree of ignorance and lack of understanding of the fundamental architecture of the Global Internet: It is a physically and administratively distributed, dynamic and organic patchwork of systems which have no single point of control or maintenance: The best the US Government can do is Disconnect the USA from the rest of the global network – which will simply result in the rest of the world routing around it, which may in turn be the very thing desired by would be attackers. The very act of shutting down the US "internet" (disconnecting it from the Global Internet) would serve the interests of the attacker(s), disrupting commerce and denying US citizens information from sources scattered across the outside world. The correct approach would be for the Government to pass a bill requiring all critical infrastructure to be permanently disconnected from the public Internet and connected via a private "National Security Network" operating in parallel with the Global Internet.
The very notion that the Internet can be "shut down" at a single point of control shows the degree of ignorance and lack of understanding of the fundamental architecture of the Global Internet: It is a physically and administratively distributed, dynamic and organic patchwork of systems which have no single point of control or maintenance: The best the US Government can do is Disconnect the USA from the rest of the global network – which will simply result in the rest of the world routing around it, which may in turn be the very thing desired by would be attackers. The very act of shutting down the US "internet" (disconnecting it from the Global Internet) would serve the interests of the attacker(s), disrupting commerce and denying US citizens information from sources scattered across the outside world. The correct approach would be for the Government to pass a bill requiring all critical infrastructure to be permanently disconnected from the public Internet and connected via a private "National Security Network" operating in parallel with the Global Internet.
September 27, 2009 @ 8:38 pm