How to destroy the Internet?
Remember the threat of anonymous destroy the Internet? Where did the hacker threaten to “put” the 13 root DNS servers on the Internet and make it impossible to get information through a query using a domain name? As a result, anyone who enters “http://www.google.com” or some other URL will receive an error page that would make most users think that the Internet is down.
In the view of a modern person, weakly connected with IT, the Internet is Wi-Fi, and few people think that most of the Internet is located under water and in general about how much data is transmitted over this underwater network of main channels, which redundant, but rather vulnerable and can be destroyed at one point physically. For a better understanding of the problem, I recommend reading the article: Reports in depth: an amazing story of the underwater Internet . In the same article, we will consider the probable points of failure, despite the fact that the Internet network is decentralized and it is considered that it is completely impossible to disconnect it and assume a situation in which the network will cease to function fully.
')
First of all, I want to clarify that we do not call on anyone to take any destructive actions, but only consider the possibility of a network failure as a result of the destruction of any of its components.
On TeleGeography, all information on underwater highways is publicly available. As well as major incidents related to their damage. So, in addition to the ills described in the article above, there were several major accidents involving earthquakes and tsunamis, when a significant part of the highways were damaged immediately. Nevertheless, even when Japan suffered a tsunami and most of the highways were damaged, the connection did not completely stop, as there were still satellite channels that made the region accessible, although there was a noticeable deterioration in speed and quality due to network congestion.
The Internet - not only virtual, but also physical space, and cables that transmit a signal - play a crucial role and are, in fact, one of the vulnerabilities. Perhaps, it was well described by Andrew Bloom in one of his videos, when he said that the squirrel that destroyed the Internet for him made him think about the network as a whole and about the problem more deeply (those who are not good with English - do not forget to include Russian subtitles):
And Andrew, perhaps, noted one of the most important vulnerabilities of the Internet network - the concentration of communication reference nodes. As you can see from the map - there are several main points of concentration, in particular, underwater highways. And, most likely, serious damage can be caused not so much by a natural cataclysm that has damaged highways at the bottom of the ocean, as well as the destruction of the network at reference points.
If the cables are under water, it is not difficult to figure out that there are points of entry and exit on the shores of the oceans. And although the coordinates of these points are many private companies trying to keep secret, very often nature has a different opinion and the underwater highways are discovered with time just lying on the sand:
Of course, they were once disguised and partially buried, but, apparently, not well and deeply, especially in uninhabited regions. But even when the cable is well hidden there is an opportunity to find it - just use the minesweeper and look for it at depths of 50–200 meters along the coast. By the way, it’s not necessary to search, sometimes as a result of uncontrolled navigation in the areas of cable laying, minesweepers cause serious damage to underwater highways. So the question of finding a cable is actually not as complicated as it seems, as is the question of its damage. Although the cable consists of many protective layers, it is easy to cut it with a hacksaw. The most difficult part of the cable is most likely to be a polycarbonate sleeve, everything else, I think, will be easy to even give in to an ax.
Although the exact location of many cables and their ground support stations is kept secret by private corporate owners, many of them, in fact, are located on the popular beaches of noisy cities. There are several cable “spots” on the map, which, according to TeleGeography, would be the most destructive if these items were destroyed. The defeat of such sites will lead not only to slowing down access to the network, but also to the inaccessibility of many websites. Some sites from the opposite side of the ocean would be inaccessible, and many others would work very slowly, which would make them unsuitable for use. Damage would be significant.
And the coordinates of these points are in the public domain! For example, switching points between America and Western Europe. One of them is laid across Mastiks Beach, in the residential area of Long Island in Brookhaven:
Also on the beach in Managavkin, New Jersey, you can find the coordinates of the exit point of another cable:
And then another cable to Tuckerton, NJ:
Such objects are the most important points of the network infrastructure of the world. Of course, that also remain the inclusion in the direction of South America, which is connected with Western Europe by direct link, as well as communication through the west and inclusion via satellites. Nevertheless, instantly redirecting large volumes of traffic through these links will be somewhat problematic, since the highways belong to different providers and you need to have an agreement. That is why the situation when for some time it becomes unavailable to chat on skype across the ocean or send e-mail, when tweets from the Middle East and get stuck there - is very real.
Other strong points of the Internet network are in the following locations:
Singapore
Egypt (both the Middle East and the Red Sea)
Great Britain
Tokyo
Hong Kong
South Florida
Marseilles
Sicily
Mumbai
Chennai
If all these key nodes suddenly become inaccessible at the same time, the Internet is unlikely to be able to function normally. The Internet will not be the Internet, but rather a set of Intranets, since there will be no global connection between different network segments. Of course, that we should not forget about the ability of the network to recover, it is enormous. Therefore, if the nodes will have a problem alternately - it is quite likely that while all of them are disconnected - the initial nodes will already be in operation again and a big problem can be only in the case of simultaneous unavailability.
And such an event is quite real. And we will not talk about the intervention of man. Here we are talking about the Sun - the star who gave us life and on which we are extremely dependent.
The physics of the Sun is quite complex, but it is not difficult to understand the essence of the influence of the solar storm. The solar flare is sometimes followed by the so-called solar storm, where the coronal mass ejection from the surface of the sun follows the same path from the surface of the sun as the preceding flare. First, consider the Sun in the H-alpha filter and the model of the Earth’s magnetosphere:
Solar activity is cyclical, the full cycle is equal to 22 years (the Hale cycle), when the state of the solar magnetic field returns to its original state. Accordingly, global emissions of coronal masses and the most powerful solar flares can be observed closer to the end of the 11-year growth cycle, at times of maximum solar activity. It is noteworthy that the substance is distributed along the magnetic field lines, which is clearly visible in the H-alpha filter.
When a solar flare and a large coronal mass ejection occurs, the magnetic field around the Sun is not able to hold it and some of the substance rushes off rapidly, filling the flow of the solar wind and increasing the concentration of particles, including particles with much greater mass and energy. Every second, the Sun loses over a million tons of matter, and at times of coronal emissions - tens of billions of tons. The speed of the solar wind is 300-1300 km / s, depending on the mass of particles and energy, and therefore the Earth has a significant concentration of ionized plasma within 2-3 days. At the same time, the light from the Sun passes 149,597,870 km (average distance from the Earth to the Sun) in just 8 minutes 17 seconds, which can give time for preparation, since in our day the Sun is carefully monitored. Including, with the help of space solar observatories, including the SOHO (Solare and Helioshperic Observatory), launched in 1995 and which has already cost over 1 billion euros. Interestingly, the mission was originally planned for 2-3 years, but it has been going on for more than 20 years and was extended 2 years ago until December 2018, because now it is extremely important to predict coronal mass ejections and build forecasts for their achievement of the Earth.
When the Earth is not lucky and it is in the path of the flow of this ionized substance, it flies on the lines of force of the Earth’s magnetosphere and magnetic storms arise. The nature of the magnetic storm lies in the interaction of particles from the ejection stream with the radiation belts of the Earth, in which they accumulate, being held by a magnetic field, forming currents, which in turn lead to the appearance of magnetic fields in places where particles accumulate, causing disturbances in the Earth’s magnetosphere. These disturbances can last for several days and, with sufficient intensity of flow, the magnetic “shield” of the planet can be destroyed by them so much that induction currents can occur in all conducted metals, first of all it can affect communication satellites and even technology on the Earth’s surface.
The threat is so real that Lloyds from London publishes risk assessment reports for North America. So in 1859 there was a storm, known as the Carrington event. It was so powerful that it could destroy the entire energy system of the Earth as a whole, if such a system existed then. The currents arose in the wires of the telegraph message, as a result of which telegraph communication was completely disabled, both in Europe and in the USA. During this flash, energy was released 20 times more than when the asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs fell - about 10 to 25 degrees of joules (10 yotatajoules), and the substance reached the Earth's magnetosphere during a record 18 hours. The ejection was moving so fast, since the previous emissions, observed from August 28 to September 1, cleared its way. The northern lights were then observed all over the Earth, even in the Caribbean, and the miners from the Rocky Mountains began to prepare breakfast in the middle of the night, thinking that morning had come. Similar events in statistics occur once every half thousand years.
Recently, evidence was found that in 774 AD, another 20 times more powerful flash occurred, which could lead in our time not only to completely destroy the power grid and data on current-carrying storage, but also to reduce the ozone layer by 20 % The probability of such an outburst is estimated at 1 event for 1,250 years.
Nowadays, a solar storm by orders of lesser intensity in 1989 led to a big problem in the power grids of Canada, causing currents in expensive transformers, which later required a quick replacement. And in 2012, a substance emitted as a result of an outbreak could have caused serious problems when interacting with the Earth’s magnetosphere, but fortunately it passed in 9 days of the Earth’s orbit, which is very close by space measures.
Conclusion - we make backups. And tape libraries and other magnetic media, as well as drives containing conductive elements and functioning on the basis of conductivity, are unlikely to be suitable without special equipment. protection. Optical discs, perhaps, are still the most durable and reliable form of storage.
Of course, the Internet is not only a network connection, but also members of this network. Most of the data is still stored not on personal gadgets, but in data centers. They are not so much. Only 4253 pieces in 121 countries of the world: data here . Some of them are the most important nodes of the network, as there are established traffic exchange points, communication management systems. The same 13 root servers of the DNS system, which are numbered from A to M and located in 13 data centers, have about 200 mirrors, that is, they are located on 200 sites, which hackers who threatened to put the network actually forgot. But there are much less communication management points. Some of the traffic exchange points and points of control of backbone channels are located only within one or two objects.
We all know the famous AMS-IX, a traffic exchange point in Amsterdam, one of the largest Internet hubs in Europe, it lives in the EvoSwitch data center , in which we provide Dell R730xd servers for rent for not very corporate and very corporate clients . But few people remember that Amsterdam is located below sea level and although the EvoSwitch data center is more than a meter elevated above the surface of the Earth, flooding is possible, and in this case global Internet problems in Europe.
Nevertheless, the chance of damage to the switching equipment as a result of the global virus is much higher, which can lead to more significant network problems and unavailability in general. But it is necessary to recognize that only nature can destroy the Internet completely.
Although many people seriously fear censorship. Nevertheless, all attempts at a ban have never been crowned with success, except perhaps for North Korea. Where the embassies began to distribute Wi-Fi to the public, after which Wi-Fi even in the embassies was banned.
From the Internet will remain the ruins without cables and data centers. Intra-nets, survivors of the cataclysm and orphaned around the world, will not be able to exchange data between themselves. But if we do not perish from the shock that all the seals on YouTube and Instagram have disappeared, then in time we will be able to restore everything, we’ll upload petabytes of pornography again, and Google will index it all again. It is possible to crush the Internet, but you can kill its idea only with modern humanity.
Thank you for staying with us. Do you like our articles? Want to see more interesting materials? Support us by placing an order or recommending to friends, 30% discount for Habr users on a unique analogue of the entry-level servers that we invented for you: The Truth About VPS (KVM) E5-2650 v4 (6 Cores) 10GB DDR4 240GB SSD 1Gbps $ 20 or how to share the server? (Options are available with RAID1 and RAID10, up to 24 cores and up to 40GB DDR4).
Dell R730xd 2 times cheaper? Only we have 2 x Intel Dodeca-Core Xeon E5-2650v4 128GB DDR4 6x480GB SSD 1Gbps 100 TV from $ 249 in the Netherlands and the USA! Read about How to build an infrastructure building. class c using servers Dell R730xd E5-2650 v4 worth 9000 euros for a penny?
In the view of a modern person, weakly connected with IT, the Internet is Wi-Fi, and few people think that most of the Internet is located under water and in general about how much data is transmitted over this underwater network of main channels, which redundant, but rather vulnerable and can be destroyed at one point physically. For a better understanding of the problem, I recommend reading the article: Reports in depth: an amazing story of the underwater Internet . In the same article, we will consider the probable points of failure, despite the fact that the Internet network is decentralized and it is considered that it is completely impossible to disconnect it and assume a situation in which the network will cease to function fully.
')
First of all, I want to clarify that we do not call on anyone to take any destructive actions, but only consider the possibility of a network failure as a result of the destruction of any of its components.
Destruction of underwater highways
On TeleGeography, all information on underwater highways is publicly available. As well as major incidents related to their damage. So, in addition to the ills described in the article above, there were several major accidents involving earthquakes and tsunamis, when a significant part of the highways were damaged immediately. Nevertheless, even when Japan suffered a tsunami and most of the highways were damaged, the connection did not completely stop, as there were still satellite channels that made the region accessible, although there was a noticeable deterioration in speed and quality due to network congestion.
The Internet - not only virtual, but also physical space, and cables that transmit a signal - play a crucial role and are, in fact, one of the vulnerabilities. Perhaps, it was well described by Andrew Bloom in one of his videos, when he said that the squirrel that destroyed the Internet for him made him think about the network as a whole and about the problem more deeply (those who are not good with English - do not forget to include Russian subtitles):
And Andrew, perhaps, noted one of the most important vulnerabilities of the Internet network - the concentration of communication reference nodes. As you can see from the map - there are several main points of concentration, in particular, underwater highways. And, most likely, serious damage can be caused not so much by a natural cataclysm that has damaged highways at the bottom of the ocean, as well as the destruction of the network at reference points.
If the cables are under water, it is not difficult to figure out that there are points of entry and exit on the shores of the oceans. And although the coordinates of these points are many private companies trying to keep secret, very often nature has a different opinion and the underwater highways are discovered with time just lying on the sand:
Of course, they were once disguised and partially buried, but, apparently, not well and deeply, especially in uninhabited regions. But even when the cable is well hidden there is an opportunity to find it - just use the minesweeper and look for it at depths of 50–200 meters along the coast. By the way, it’s not necessary to search, sometimes as a result of uncontrolled navigation in the areas of cable laying, minesweepers cause serious damage to underwater highways. So the question of finding a cable is actually not as complicated as it seems, as is the question of its damage. Although the cable consists of many protective layers, it is easy to cut it with a hacksaw. The most difficult part of the cable is most likely to be a polycarbonate sleeve, everything else, I think, will be easy to even give in to an ax.
Although the exact location of many cables and their ground support stations is kept secret by private corporate owners, many of them, in fact, are located on the popular beaches of noisy cities. There are several cable “spots” on the map, which, according to TeleGeography, would be the most destructive if these items were destroyed. The defeat of such sites will lead not only to slowing down access to the network, but also to the inaccessibility of many websites. Some sites from the opposite side of the ocean would be inaccessible, and many others would work very slowly, which would make them unsuitable for use. Damage would be significant.
And the coordinates of these points are in the public domain! For example, switching points between America and Western Europe. One of them is laid across Mastiks Beach, in the residential area of Long Island in Brookhaven:
Also on the beach in Managavkin, New Jersey, you can find the coordinates of the exit point of another cable:
And then another cable to Tuckerton, NJ:
Such objects are the most important points of the network infrastructure of the world. Of course, that also remain the inclusion in the direction of South America, which is connected with Western Europe by direct link, as well as communication through the west and inclusion via satellites. Nevertheless, instantly redirecting large volumes of traffic through these links will be somewhat problematic, since the highways belong to different providers and you need to have an agreement. That is why the situation when for some time it becomes unavailable to chat on skype across the ocean or send e-mail, when tweets from the Middle East and get stuck there - is very real.
Other strong points of the Internet network are in the following locations:
Singapore
Egypt (both the Middle East and the Red Sea)
Great Britain
Tokyo
Hong Kong
South Florida
Marseilles
Sicily
Mumbai
Chennai
If all these key nodes suddenly become inaccessible at the same time, the Internet is unlikely to be able to function normally. The Internet will not be the Internet, but rather a set of Intranets, since there will be no global connection between different network segments. Of course, that we should not forget about the ability of the network to recover, it is enormous. Therefore, if the nodes will have a problem alternately - it is quite likely that while all of them are disconnected - the initial nodes will already be in operation again and a big problem can be only in the case of simultaneous unavailability.
And such an event is quite real. And we will not talk about the intervention of man. Here we are talking about the Sun - the star who gave us life and on which we are extremely dependent.
Solar storms
The physics of the Sun is quite complex, but it is not difficult to understand the essence of the influence of the solar storm. The solar flare is sometimes followed by the so-called solar storm, where the coronal mass ejection from the surface of the sun follows the same path from the surface of the sun as the preceding flare. First, consider the Sun in the H-alpha filter and the model of the Earth’s magnetosphere:
Solar activity is cyclical, the full cycle is equal to 22 years (the Hale cycle), when the state of the solar magnetic field returns to its original state. Accordingly, global emissions of coronal masses and the most powerful solar flares can be observed closer to the end of the 11-year growth cycle, at times of maximum solar activity. It is noteworthy that the substance is distributed along the magnetic field lines, which is clearly visible in the H-alpha filter.
When a solar flare and a large coronal mass ejection occurs, the magnetic field around the Sun is not able to hold it and some of the substance rushes off rapidly, filling the flow of the solar wind and increasing the concentration of particles, including particles with much greater mass and energy. Every second, the Sun loses over a million tons of matter, and at times of coronal emissions - tens of billions of tons. The speed of the solar wind is 300-1300 km / s, depending on the mass of particles and energy, and therefore the Earth has a significant concentration of ionized plasma within 2-3 days. At the same time, the light from the Sun passes 149,597,870 km (average distance from the Earth to the Sun) in just 8 minutes 17 seconds, which can give time for preparation, since in our day the Sun is carefully monitored. Including, with the help of space solar observatories, including the SOHO (Solare and Helioshperic Observatory), launched in 1995 and which has already cost over 1 billion euros. Interestingly, the mission was originally planned for 2-3 years, but it has been going on for more than 20 years and was extended 2 years ago until December 2018, because now it is extremely important to predict coronal mass ejections and build forecasts for their achievement of the Earth.
When the Earth is not lucky and it is in the path of the flow of this ionized substance, it flies on the lines of force of the Earth’s magnetosphere and magnetic storms arise. The nature of the magnetic storm lies in the interaction of particles from the ejection stream with the radiation belts of the Earth, in which they accumulate, being held by a magnetic field, forming currents, which in turn lead to the appearance of magnetic fields in places where particles accumulate, causing disturbances in the Earth’s magnetosphere. These disturbances can last for several days and, with sufficient intensity of flow, the magnetic “shield” of the planet can be destroyed by them so much that induction currents can occur in all conducted metals, first of all it can affect communication satellites and even technology on the Earth’s surface.
The threat is so real that Lloyds from London publishes risk assessment reports for North America. So in 1859 there was a storm, known as the Carrington event. It was so powerful that it could destroy the entire energy system of the Earth as a whole, if such a system existed then. The currents arose in the wires of the telegraph message, as a result of which telegraph communication was completely disabled, both in Europe and in the USA. During this flash, energy was released 20 times more than when the asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs fell - about 10 to 25 degrees of joules (10 yotatajoules), and the substance reached the Earth's magnetosphere during a record 18 hours. The ejection was moving so fast, since the previous emissions, observed from August 28 to September 1, cleared its way. The northern lights were then observed all over the Earth, even in the Caribbean, and the miners from the Rocky Mountains began to prepare breakfast in the middle of the night, thinking that morning had come. Similar events in statistics occur once every half thousand years.
Recently, evidence was found that in 774 AD, another 20 times more powerful flash occurred, which could lead in our time not only to completely destroy the power grid and data on current-carrying storage, but also to reduce the ozone layer by 20 % The probability of such an outburst is estimated at 1 event for 1,250 years.
Nowadays, a solar storm by orders of lesser intensity in 1989 led to a big problem in the power grids of Canada, causing currents in expensive transformers, which later required a quick replacement. And in 2012, a substance emitted as a result of an outbreak could have caused serious problems when interacting with the Earth’s magnetosphere, but fortunately it passed in 9 days of the Earth’s orbit, which is very close by space measures.
Conclusion - we make backups. And tape libraries and other magnetic media, as well as drives containing conductive elements and functioning on the basis of conductivity, are unlikely to be suitable without special equipment. protection. Optical discs, perhaps, are still the most durable and reliable form of storage.
Data centers, network participants and communications
Of course, the Internet is not only a network connection, but also members of this network. Most of the data is still stored not on personal gadgets, but in data centers. They are not so much. Only 4253 pieces in 121 countries of the world: data here . Some of them are the most important nodes of the network, as there are established traffic exchange points, communication management systems. The same 13 root servers of the DNS system, which are numbered from A to M and located in 13 data centers, have about 200 mirrors, that is, they are located on 200 sites, which hackers who threatened to put the network actually forgot. But there are much less communication management points. Some of the traffic exchange points and points of control of backbone channels are located only within one or two objects.
We all know the famous AMS-IX, a traffic exchange point in Amsterdam, one of the largest Internet hubs in Europe, it lives in the EvoSwitch data center , in which we provide Dell R730xd servers for rent for not very corporate and very corporate clients . But few people remember that Amsterdam is located below sea level and although the EvoSwitch data center is more than a meter elevated above the surface of the Earth, flooding is possible, and in this case global Internet problems in Europe.
Nevertheless, the chance of damage to the switching equipment as a result of the global virus is much higher, which can lead to more significant network problems and unavailability in general. But it is necessary to recognize that only nature can destroy the Internet completely.
Although many people seriously fear censorship. Nevertheless, all attempts at a ban have never been crowned with success, except perhaps for North Korea. Where the embassies began to distribute Wi-Fi to the public, after which Wi-Fi even in the embassies was banned.
From the Internet will remain the ruins without cables and data centers. Intra-nets, survivors of the cataclysm and orphaned around the world, will not be able to exchange data between themselves. But if we do not perish from the shock that all the seals on YouTube and Instagram have disappeared, then in time we will be able to restore everything, we’ll upload petabytes of pornography again, and Google will index it all again. It is possible to crush the Internet, but you can kill its idea only with modern humanity.
Thank you for staying with us. Do you like our articles? Want to see more interesting materials? Support us by placing an order or recommending to friends, 30% discount for Habr users on a unique analogue of the entry-level servers that we invented for you: The Truth About VPS (KVM) E5-2650 v4 (6 Cores) 10GB DDR4 240GB SSD 1Gbps $ 20 or how to share the server? (Options are available with RAID1 and RAID10, up to 24 cores and up to 40GB DDR4).
Dell R730xd 2 times cheaper? Only we have 2 x Intel Dodeca-Core Xeon E5-2650v4 128GB DDR4 6x480GB SSD 1Gbps 100 TV from $ 249 in the Netherlands and the USA! Read about How to build an infrastructure building. class c using servers Dell R730xd E5-2650 v4 worth 9000 euros for a penny?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/348108/
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