~terry
Sat, Feb 21, 1998 (16:43)
seed
What does it take the bring the whole Net down? The Internet is
celebrated as a wonderfully resilient, decentralized medium, able to
withstand nuclear war and possibly even the censorial efforts of
draconian governments. But just how decentralized is the Net? A panel of
leading Internet technology experts will discuss whether there are
critical choke points that governments or powerful private organizations
could use to crash the Net:
Hijacking in the Domain Name System: Could those who act as registrars or
root server operators bring the Net to its knees?
Identity held hostage: How do certificate authority systems work to vouch
for personal identity or authorization privileges work? How could they be
abused by governments or those who operate CAs?
PICS Defaults: What would happen if browser manufacturers reset filtering
defaults to block unlabeled sites? Suppose search engines only indexed
labeled sites? Would there be any way around these labels?
Network Access Points (NAPs), Interconnect Points and Peering Agreements:
How many bombs would you have to drop to bring Internet traffic to a
halt? In the US? Around the world?
Matt Blaze, Ph.D., AT&T Laboratories
Daniel Weitzner, Moderator, Center for Democracy and Technology
Steven Bellovin, AT&T Research
~terry
Wed, Mar 4, 1998 (07:13)
#1
Matt Blaze and Steve Bellovin from AT&T Labs Research
(http://www.research.att.com) discussed ways to 'Choke the Net.' Blaze
and Bellovin cited the Net's structure as the cause of
vulnerability. In addition, the technical characteristics of HTTP are
a mismatch with what the Internet was designed for. To choke the Net,
certain computers such as endpoints or central routers can be brought
down. The Net is not just susceptible to intended takedown,
however. Circumstances such as real-time multimedia and high bandwidth
data will disable the Net. Routing problems, specifically
misconfigured routers, were cited as a final threat. I agree with the
panelists' contention that protocols for secure DNS will decrease the
risk of malicious attacks, though it is questionable by what fraction
the risk will be decreased.
- Danielle Gallo