Old protocol makes vulnerable the entire Internet

Weak mestoK end of the 90s the Internet began to grow so fast that some experts have begun to doubt whether it will continue indefinitely. Some of them were programmers Yaakov Rechter from IBM and Kirk Lughid from Cisco, which came up in January 1989, the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), a protocol that helps computers to navigate on the Internet - a place where there was never card - directing traffic at the most efficient routes. Not to say that the protocol was then considered perfect, but Rechter Lughid and offer the best solution to the problem, and quickly moved on to the Internet BGP, now its growth have nothing held back.





Information Technology is the usual story: behind the beautiful facade hides a hastily created patches that pile up on each other - sometimes it seems that it works wonderfully. This is often used by hackers, and it is not surprising that the Rechter and Lughid wonder about the safety protocol in 1989 - then seemed cybercrime lot of science fiction. Under the BGP it is still impossible to verify the accuracy of the information that has repeatedly led to serious disruptions caused either by accident, or specifically.

Examples speak for themselves. In 2008, the Government of Pakistan has decided to block YouTube in the country because of the video from the Prophet Muhammad. Erroneous team into BGP led to the fact that most of the traffic YouTube users redirected to Pakistan, which is why the site is not working for about two hours. In 2010, because of incorrect command sent by the Chinese telecom operator China Telecom, the US military traffic for about 18 minutes, passing through China - and nothing prevented him to intercept Chinese. Finally, in 2014, an attacker redirect traffic 19 service providers in Canada to steal Bitcoins worth $ 83 000. This is the most high-profile cases - often malfunction BGP simply do not pay attention.

The role of BGP should not be underestimated. With this protocol the Internet remains a decentralized global network continues to grow and chaotic - which is why, although it is very difficult to alter the basics. Minutes BGPSEC, which adds to the original BGP cryptographic keys is introduced, only 5% of the networks - but that, given the scale of the modern Internet, a lot. Home to the extent that this number will approach 100%, no one will have the opportunity and the temptation to make a small Internet apocalypse.

«When a security threat will be so big that will affect the interests of the business, all at once begin to solve the problem. In the meantime, you can just do a patch ahead of hackers one step ».

Lughid Kirk, one of the creators of the Border Gateway Protocol

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via www.lookatme.ru/mag/live/things/214753-border-gateway-protocol