Ten ways to destroy the Internet

We used to think of the Internet as a reliable platform for free global communication, where information is distributed without interference, innovators can launch new applications at will, and everyone has the freedom of speech. But hardly a generation later the Internet will keep its present form.

In fact, the World Network is not so reliable, as many believe. How is the internet, which we know can be lost? Here are ten possible ways. Let it looks a little paranoid, but all of the following ways had real factual justification.

1. Someone will break the system Domain Name Service. Internet relies on DNS. But if someone violates the fundamental way in which requests are redirected to web sites, we can no longer trust the URL. Phishing will be easy. Who owns the DNS - he owns the internet.

2. Attack zombie networks. An unknown number of infected zombie PCs are just waiting for commands from hackers. Matt Sergeant of MessageLabs estimated the size of the company alone Storm botnet from five to ten million computers (although other estimates are much more modest). Today, bots fill our inboxes spam. But in the past they were used to attack the company and the country, as well as for DDoS-attacks on websites. In the end, this is a real arms race, which will be only one winner.

3. Massive physical infrastructure failure. If a small incident with a pair of cables in the Mediterranean Sea led to the shut down due to hundreds of millions of people, then just imagine what posledtstviya may be a deliberate attack.

4. The collapse into a thousand fragments. Since the time of Fido people tend to form groups of beliefs. Niklas Carr in his book "The Big Switch" cites a study which provides statistics: more than 90% of hyperlinks in the liberal and the conservative community, lead to resources within the community. There are even special tools, which are designed to keep people from following links beyond the limited "microcosm". As a result, the islands are formed of people with similar thinking that more and more convinced that there is only one correct answer, and they are the only bearers of truth. This is the end of dreams of the founders of the Internet to create a global community of world citizens.

5. A really good virus that hacked routers. The mechanisms of self-healing is based on the Internet Protocol Border Gateway Protocol, or BGP. But what if someone gets inside the routers? At a conference in 2006, representatives of Cisco, in response to vulnerability reports concluded that "the most devastating attacks are caused by well-deliberate changes in the configuration of trusted routers." Damage the BGP, and you do not just stop forwarding traffic on the Internet, but also prevented us access to routers and repair them.

6. Update hinder themselves. Most software today is designed to automatically download patches and keeping themselves up to date. But sometimes the automatic upgrade causes its own problems. So, August 16, 2007 in Skype service went down because, as stated by the company, mass update of the operating system Windows. It is only a matter of time until the updates will not be able to create a whole program modules, such as the network stack, is already unable to be updated, and requires manual intervention to restore the health of millions of computers.

7. Network will no longer be neutral. If the provider will charge a fee for access to certain sites, as TV providers charge a fee for access to TV channels, very soon in our monthly bills will be a new graph "fee for Google". This is already happening in many mobile operators, who charge a fee for access to Facebook or YouTube. This is a clever way to destroy the Internet, because onoznachaet end of innovation. In such circumstances, no one can start a new Skype, Twitter or YouTube without the support of operators.

8. The involvement of lawyers. Internet is an experiment on the freedom of speech. This may come to an end. Not having the ability to directly "collide" on websites, the lawyers will seek to hosters and registrars. Here's how Swiss bankers recently unplugged site Wikileaks. And when there was a precedent. the other lawyers necessarily follow suit. The recording industry is already looking for ways how to make a complaint operators for the transmission of pirated content. It is a mockery of network neutrality. If telecoms will distribute priorities for different types of traffic, they will cease to be the operators of general purpose and they can take responsibility for what they broadcast on their channels, including illegal content.

9. National censorship. Many countries have already restricted access to the internet for its citizens. Chinese firewall, including 30,000 trained people who are searching for the "wrong" people are - is a good example. But the Internet itself is a tool that causes social change and revolution that threatens any government. Imagine, for example, that the US Congress to outlaw online popnografiyu and start popnosayty block known that for some statistics, generate up to 18, 8% of all referrals to the Internet. Instead, we will return the global Internet in the era of local subnets, each of which operates local legislation.

10. People will die. As noted by the authors of popular scientific Discover magazine a few years ago, mankind has a whole set of ways to destroy ourselves from nuclear weapons and biological weapons before the creation of a black hole as a result of a scientific experiment. And what will happen to the Internet without users?

Internet has come a long way from the original ideals of the scientific community to the commercial platform controlled by corporations and telecom operators. In many ways, the time between the start of the project ARPAnet in 1969 and the closing date of Netscape month ago - it's just a brief moment in history, owned by Facebook generation