[off topic] Bomb Threat. - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

21 Oct 1998

Well, I guess we see this trend of making things less redundant and
less faithful to theory, more faithful to shaving off 1/4 of a cent
universally.
We see bomb threats pretty universally too, and not necessarily for
political reasons. Are you sure it wasn't just a kid whose computer
crashed again?

...

  This is kinda off topic, but we've just had a
bomb threat!
 No joke!  Someone phoned in, asked for my boss, and said they
 put a bomb in the building!  Why would someone bomb an ISP?
 Other than my boss is an Afican-American...  (Native of Nigeria).
 ------- 
A sad commentary on a form of 'techno-terrorism' that is likely to  become
...
 more prevalent as dependency on the 'net'
increases.

The commercialization of the Internet has inadvertantly weakened one of
its major design points that was considered to be so critical when the
first ARPA designs were worked out.  That being redundancy and lack of
centralization.

Before the major commercial 'backbones' were in place, (set the 
'wayback'
...
 machine; Sherman) most systems had multiple shared
dial-up connections  to
...
 numerous other hosts with which they regularly shared
information  (email,
...
 news, files, etc.)

If a network connection went down, (if you even had one) or a given  host
...
 was offline, traffic was just routed thru another
system that indicated
connectivity to the system (or systems) that the traffic was destined  for.
...
 (everyone remember the periodic routing 'maps'
that went around?)

So... unless you lost ALL of your phone lines for an extended period,  you
...
 pretty much always had (some level of) connectivity.

Today, on the other hand (generalization warning!) how many major  systems 
...
 maintain dial-up inter-system capability even as a
backup?

The major infrastructures have tended to centralize around the  commercial
...
 'backbones' and carriers which make them
succeptable to interruptions  of
...
 service when a single connection fails!  (Sure... your
web servers are  fed
...
 by dual 'T3s', but both from a single carrier
thru a single POP?!?)

So much in money and resources is often committed to create/maintain a
major (high bandwidth) link onto the net, (useful) redundancy is
frequently sacrificed.

One attack on a major carrier POP (ok, definition time: POP = Point
Of Presence) could easily disrupt Internet traffic for a LOT of people  and
...
 corporations.

Take out a couple of the major authoritative DNS servers, and watch the
world (generalization) start crashing down!

Or sadly, target one ISP that is suspected of being a major provider?

It happens... more often than you might ever imagine...

-jim
(I speak for no one but myself...  YMMV)
---
jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com
The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw
Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174

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