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rhody
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100508/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_fragile_internet"
By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson, Ap Technology Writer – Sat May 8, 10:33 am ET
Like the huge oil spill recently with its terrible consequences, not until someone by accident or intentionally through sabotoge brings the internet to it's knees will anyone pay attention to it. We have seen the enemy and it is us... We never seem to learn...
Rhody...
By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson, Ap Technology Writer – Sat May 8, 10:33 am ET
andNEW YORK – In 1998, a hacker told Congress that he could bring down the Internet in 30 minutes by exploiting a certain flaw that sometimes caused online outages by misdirecting data. In 2003, the Bush administration concluded that fixing this flaw was in the nation's "vital interest."
Fast forward to 2010, and very little has happened to improve the situation. The flaw still causes outages every year. Although most of the outages are innocent and fixed quickly, the problem still could be exploited by a hacker to spy on data traffic or take down websites. Meanwhile, our reliance on the Internet has only increased. The next outage, accidental or malicious, could disrupt businesses, the government or anyone who needs the Internet to run normally.
Pieter Poll, the chief technology officer at Qwest Communications International Inc., says that he would support some simple mechanisms to validate data routes, but he argues that fundamental reform isn't necessary. Hijackings are typically corrected quickly enough that they don't pose a major threat, he argues.
One fix being tested would stop short of making the routing system fully secure but would at least verify part of it. Yet this system also worries carriers because they would have to work through a central database.
"My fear is that innovation on the Internet would slow down if there's a need to go through a central authority," Poll says. "I see little appetite for that in the industry."
Jeffrey Hunker, a former senior director for critical infrastructure in the Clinton administration, says he's not surprised that little has happened on the issue since 2003. He doesn't expect much to happen in the next seven years, either.
"The only thing that's going to drive adoption is a major incident, which we haven't had yet," he says. "But there's plenty of evidence out there that a major incident would be possible."
In the meantime, network administrators deal with hijacking an old-fashioned way: calling their counterparts close to where the hijacking is happening to get them to manually change data routes. Because e-mails may not arrive if a route has been hijacked, the phone is a more reliable option, says Tom Daly, chief technical officer of Dynamic Network Services Inc., which provides Web hosting and other Internet services.
"You make some phone calls and hope and pray," Daly says. "That's about it."
Like the huge oil spill recently with its terrible consequences, not until someone by accident or intentionally through sabotoge brings the internet to it's knees will anyone pay attention to it. We have seen the enemy and it is us... We never seem to learn...
Rhody...
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