Re: [gentoo-user] Somewhat OT: Any truth to this mess?

[Michael Mol <mikemol@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 10:34 AM, Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:
> Alan McKinnon wrote:
>> On Sat, 18 Feb 2012 06:39:27 -0600
>> Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
>>>> Am Samstag, 18. Februar 2012, 06:00:00 schrieb Dale:
>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't really think they can unless they just cut power to all the
>>>>> computers.  After all, the internet is supposed to be redundant
>>>>> right? If there is a few computers still running that have a
>>>>> connection, it is still working.  Sort of anyway.
>>>>>
>>>>> Does make one wonder tho.  They have been talking about having a
>>>>> internet "off switch" but I'm not sure it would be that easy.
>>>>
>>>> basically, yes. Take down the core routers and backbones and
>>>> everything falls apart.
>>>>
>>>
>>> But how long would it take to actually do this?
>>>
>>> Another thing, the Government, especially the military, uses the
>>> internet too.
>>
>> Not quite. They use the same internet *technology* you do, not
>> necessarily the same internet *devices*.
>>
>>
>
>
> What about banks?  Credit cards?  Heck, even food stamp cards?  Would
> phones work?  I'm not just thinking about Vonage or Skype either.

Banks, credit cards, etc. mostly operate on leased lines (Think T1,
T2, T3...) and landlines (point-of-sale vending, though that's
changing. ATMs also operate on landlines, and I don't believe that's
changing.).

You'd still have access to your money. You'd just have to go to a bank
branch or an ATM.

This whole thread is full panicked reasoning. The biggest risk we face
is a scenario like Iran or Egypt's, where the government requires
controls on border routers. Most likely, they'd do it at the ISP
level, not at the core router level. That said, they could conceivably
demand core router operators acquiesce to their demands, but the worst
you're likely to see there is some network blocks' being dropped
offline.

And it's not so easy to take the Internet down with injected BGP
routes any more, either; most network operators apply some sort of
filtering.

-- 
:wq