
Tunisia, Egypt, Miami: The Importance of Internet Choke Points - shawndumas
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/01/tunisia-egypt-miami-the-importance-of-internet-choke-points/70415/
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Swannie
A little misleading.

The thing is, in London, they realised this years ago. So the biggest peering
house created a second building, then a third, in geographically diverse parts
of the City. Not to mention that they weren't the only company doing it.

This is true in any city in the world.

What aren't mentioned are the cable landing points. There are only a few of
these on the coasts of our countries, compared to the diversity inside the
country.

~~~
borism
yup. peering disputes/wars happen all the time. it doesn't matter who owns the
physical building.

The King is the one who has passwords to the routers.

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jacquesm
What would a modern day invasion look like?

It used to be control of the radio and TV stations, bridges, railroads and the
airports, it may very well be that in the current century the control of cell
phone towers and routers will trump those in priority. You can disable the
power by graphite bombing power stations (see Belgrade) but that will probably
not have an immediate effect on the network.

Of course the quickest way to put the routers out of commission is to simply
destroy them but if you want to be able to put them back online later it will
have to be done more subtle.

I recall how immediately after the invasion of Iraq a bunch of entrepreneurial
types brought in a cell phone exchange in a container and a bunch of GSM
phones, they were immediately confiscated by the US army. At the time the
theory was that the US wanted a US company to own the Iraqi telephone
infrastructure for commercial reasons but there may have been another motive
there.

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drndown2007
I assume (hope) there must be some smart people somewhere starting to work on
some sort of P2P/mesh internet replacement that could work with all the
wireless routers out there in order to prepare for the day when something like
this happens again... ?

~~~
borism
wireless. easily jammable.

~~~
cb18
like cutting a cable is "jammable"

Presumably a wireless jamming method would have an area/circle/sphere of
effectiveness.

Whereas the critical nodes of a wired network are somewhat locked in place,
critical nodes in a network of transportable, wirelessly communicating nodes
can be relocated to route around jamming.

~~~
borism
_like cutting a cable is "jammable"_

you can put a cable in 1x1 meter of concrete and bury it 10m deep or you can
camouflage it in forest, bush or heck, even among other cables in an urban
environment.

How do you plan on hiding your wireless AP?

 _Presumably a wireless jamming method would have an area/circle/sphere of
effectiveness._

you must not worry that your presumable opponent (The Evil Government) has
enough _effectiveness_ to render your moving AP plan irrelevant.

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russnewcomer
I guess this goes to show that geography does matter, even for the survival of
the internet.

On the other hand, the Egyptians who cut off their country's internet were
wise enough to not just black hole everything that went through their routers
and trash a lot of world-wide traffic. They can still position their actions
as a local police action, instead of a disruption of global commerce.

