LawMeme LawMeme Yale Law School  
LawMeme
Search LawMeme [ Advanced Search ]
 
 
 
 
Internet's Vulnerability
Posted by Paul Szynol on Wednesday, November 27 @ 23:25:50 EST News
According to recent research, the Internet is vulnerable in precisely the sort of way its design was meant to avoid--paralysis of the entire system through the destruction of particular nodes--and the commercialization of the Internet is partly to blame.

Three scientists have concluded that if key nodes of the Internet were compromised by an electronic attack or a physical disaster, major cities w/ redundant nodes would most likely survive the increased congestion that would result from rerouted traffic, but outlying areas would suffer and perhaps lose connectivity altogether.

The researchers suggest that the commercialization of the Internet has concentrated distribution points and effectively made the Internet as a whole more vulnerable to such localized attacks.

In its early days the net was as decentralised, as possible [sic] with multiple links between many of the nodes forming it. If one node disappeared, traffic could easily flow to other links and route traffic to all parts.

However, said the researchers, the increasing commercialisation of the net has seen the emergence of large hubs that act as key distribution points for some parts of the web.

As a result, the net has become much more vulnerable to attack.

Report is here.
 
Related Links
· More about News
· News by Paul Szynol


Most read story about News:
Shiver Me Timbers! Pirates Take to the High Seas

Options

 Printer Friendly Page  Printer Friendly Page

 Send to a Friend  Send to a Friend

Threshold
  
The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.

Leges humanae nascuntur, vivunt, moriuntur
Human laws are born, live, and die

Contributors retain copyright interests in all stories, comments and submissions.
Everything else copyright (c) 2002 by the Information Society Project.

This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions
set forth in the Open Publication License, v1.0 or later.
The latest version is currently available at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/.

You can syndicate our news with backend.php

Page Generation: 0.187 Seconds