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Killing internet

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Mehak Katnoria

1) The document discusses how while the internet seems intangible, it is actually a physical network of cables and infrastructure that connects computers and networks around the world. 2) It describes how the internet could potentially be destroyed by locating and cutting its major underwater cables as well as attacking key data centers and network infrastructure points. 3) This would fracture the internet into isolated smaller networks unable to communicate, essentially destroying the internet as a single global network. However, the document notes such a coordinated global attack would be incredibly complex and difficult to achieve.

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You can't destroy a signal while using it; the Internet's destruction requires analog violence, not some beefed up DDoS strike. (DDoS is short for Distributed Denial of Service.)DDoS is a type of DOS attack where multiple compromised systems, which are often infected with a Trojan, are used to target a single system causing a Denial of Service (DoS) attack The DoS attack typically uses one computer and one Internet connection to flood a targeted system or resource. The DDoS attack uses multiple computers and Internet connections to flood the targeted resource. DDoS attacks are often global attacks. We always think of threats agains the Internet as cyberwarfare or some abstraction, virtual to the point of meaningless. But this is mostly bluster and software-mongering. The enormous, invisible truth of the Internet is that it's enormously strong. There's no main switch, no self-destruct button, no wire to be snipped for an easy blackout.But for all its durability, the Internet isn't immortal. It's strong because it was built to be strong. And because it was built, like you'd build a monument or bench, it can be destroyed. Just like every other physical thing on the planet. We think of it as a crystal cloud, an inexorable force of the cosmos that runs on its own, as susceptible to destruction as gravity. But let's get one thing straight: With enough effort, you could destroy the internet as thoroughly as a tree chopped straight through. You just need to know where to start slicing. As mentioned, the cables are wired to back each other upwhen one fails, another picks up the slack. But heywhat if you snipped them all? The Internet is a network of networks. The laptops in your house, the desktops in your office, a server farm in Moscowthey're all wrangled together by these byzantine cable connections. Kill the connections, and the networks can't speak across oceans. The Internet is instantly fractured. Although the exact location of many of the cables and their onshore landing stations are kept a secret by private corporate owners, many aren'tin fact, they're found on popular beaches and bustling towns. ?Here are two cable spots that, according to TeleGeography, would be the most devastating if destroyed. Striking a node like this would only result in slowdowns and setbacks, not total annihilation. Sites from across the ocean would be immediately inaccessiblemany others would be so slow as to be unusable. The internet still runsconfusedly and very slowlybut this is a good start.With all the cables cut, the Internet is landlocked, broken up into a handful of tiny Internets that can't talk to one another. Messages can't be sent around the world anymore. Hell, Japan is completely isolated. After demolishing the root servers, web addresses are reduced to incomprehensible code numbers. The destruction of the Internet is ready for its coup de gr但ce: Blow up the boxes that hook what's left together.Data centers are unassuming buildings filled with servers that host the websites we browse, the emails we read, and the vault of lo-res Facebook photos you racked up all through college. They're enormous, often windowless structures that aren't designed for people.Wreck this floor, or even the building itself, and the entire region's connection starts crawlingthe performance of the Internet around the world would take a hit. Not only thatwebsites themselves are erased. Companies use these data centers to outsource their storage, meaning every photo or song you've ever uploaded, for example, could vanish once you start wrecking wall after wall of servers. If your ISP plugs in at one of these junctions, you might lose your home access altogethersevered at the source. With all this gone, the web is all but dead. If you wanted to be thorough, the rest of the planet's less important data centers can all be pinpointed and blown to hell. New York City's 60 Hudson Street facility, owned by a company called TELX, is a global destinationThere are centers like 60 Hudson sprinkled across the globe,
and eradicating the gear inside each would cripple the web stretching in every direction outward. Now data is entirely frozen. Nothing can get anywhere, because all the roads, bridges, and traffic lights are in ruin. All that's left of the Internet is your office intranet, or the file-swapping in your dorm. The tiny shreds. There are nets, but none of them are inter. But remember, to do this, you would've just completed the single most complex, sweeping act of destruction in human history. But with anything less, the Internet would still be kicking. And that's what makes it so impossibly damn strong. Nobody will ever be able to pull off thousands of attacks around the entire planet at once, with one coordinated blast and chop. Unless you had a team of tens of thousands to strike everywhere at the exact same time, repairs would outpace destructionthis isn't a job for a lone wolf. Short of a thermonuclear apocalypsewhich would lead to some bigger problems than Facebook downtimewe just can't damage so much stuff spread so widely. We just built it too well.

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Killing internet

  • 1. You can't destroy a signal while using it; the Internet's destruction requires analog violence, not some beefed up DDoS strike. (DDoS is short for Distributed Denial of Service.)DDoS is a type of DOS attack where multiple compromised systems, which are often infected with a Trojan, are used to target a single system causing a Denial of Service (DoS) attack The DoS attack typically uses one computer and one Internet connection to flood a targeted system or resource. The DDoS attack uses multiple computers and Internet connections to flood the targeted resource. DDoS attacks are often global attacks. We always think of threats agains the Internet as cyberwarfare or some abstraction, virtual to the point of meaningless. But this is mostly bluster and software-mongering. The enormous, invisible truth of the Internet is that it's enormously strong. There's no main switch, no self-destruct button, no wire to be snipped for an easy blackout.But for all its durability, the Internet isn't immortal. It's strong because it was built to be strong. And because it was built, like you'd build a monument or bench, it can be destroyed. Just like every other physical thing on the planet. We think of it as a crystal cloud, an inexorable force of the cosmos that runs on its own, as susceptible to destruction as gravity. But let's get one thing straight: With enough effort, you could destroy the internet as thoroughly as a tree chopped straight through. You just need to know where to start slicing. As mentioned, the cables are wired to back each other upwhen one fails, another picks up the slack. But heywhat if you snipped them all? The Internet is a network of networks. The laptops in your house, the desktops in your office, a server farm in Moscowthey're all wrangled together by these byzantine cable connections. Kill the connections, and the networks can't speak across oceans. The Internet is instantly fractured. Although the exact location of many of the cables and their onshore landing stations are kept a secret by private corporate owners, many aren'tin fact, they're found on popular beaches and bustling towns. ?Here are two cable spots that, according to TeleGeography, would be the most devastating if destroyed. Striking a node like this would only result in slowdowns and setbacks, not total annihilation. Sites from across the ocean would be immediately inaccessiblemany others would be so slow as to be unusable. The internet still runsconfusedly and very slowlybut this is a good start.With all the cables cut, the Internet is landlocked, broken up into a handful of tiny Internets that can't talk to one another. Messages can't be sent around the world anymore. Hell, Japan is completely isolated. After demolishing the root servers, web addresses are reduced to incomprehensible code numbers. The destruction of the Internet is ready for its coup de gr但ce: Blow up the boxes that hook what's left together.Data centers are unassuming buildings filled with servers that host the websites we browse, the emails we read, and the vault of lo-res Facebook photos you racked up all through college. They're enormous, often windowless structures that aren't designed for people.Wreck this floor, or even the building itself, and the entire region's connection starts crawlingthe performance of the Internet around the world would take a hit. Not only thatwebsites themselves are erased. Companies use these data centers to outsource their storage, meaning every photo or song you've ever uploaded, for example, could vanish once you start wrecking wall after wall of servers. If your ISP plugs in at one of these junctions, you might lose your home access altogethersevered at the source. With all this gone, the web is all but dead. If you wanted to be thorough, the rest of the planet's less important data centers can all be pinpointed and blown to hell. New York City's 60 Hudson Street facility, owned by a company called TELX, is a global destinationThere are centers like 60 Hudson sprinkled across the globe,
  • 2. and eradicating the gear inside each would cripple the web stretching in every direction outward. Now data is entirely frozen. Nothing can get anywhere, because all the roads, bridges, and traffic lights are in ruin. All that's left of the Internet is your office intranet, or the file-swapping in your dorm. The tiny shreds. There are nets, but none of them are inter. But remember, to do this, you would've just completed the single most complex, sweeping act of destruction in human history. But with anything less, the Internet would still be kicking. And that's what makes it so impossibly damn strong. Nobody will ever be able to pull off thousands of attacks around the entire planet at once, with one coordinated blast and chop. Unless you had a team of tens of thousands to strike everywhere at the exact same time, repairs would outpace destructionthis isn't a job for a lone wolf. Short of a thermonuclear apocalypsewhich would lead to some bigger problems than Facebook downtimewe just can't damage so much stuff spread so widely. We just built it too well.