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What if the Internet breaks?
MSN Money ^ | 12/11/09 | Katherine Reynolds Lewis

Posted on 12/11/2009 12:55:09 PM PST by FromLori

The 40-year-old system might be vulnerable to technical collapse or cyberattack, which could cause widespread chaos in fields from banking to health care to government.

When your Internet service goes down it's at best an inconvenience. If you rely on it for business, it can quickly cost you money.

The fight over 'net neutrality' So imagine: What happens if the Internet breaks? Picture people wandering the streets lost without GPS or maps on their iPhones, unable to pay for food or other goods with a simple swipe of a card.

Companies would have to resort to faxes and phone calls instead of e-mail; they'd quickly reach capacity and be unable to function. Credit cards wouldn't work; stores and hospitals would run short of supplies. Even electrical power to our homes could be disrupted. "It would be a mess," said Dave Marcus, the director of security research for McAfee (MFE, news, msgs). "You would be taking businesses that were designed to do all their point-of-sale and financial transactions through the Internet and going back to pen and paper and taking checks in a car to the bank. People would lose their minds."

On the 40th anniversary of the first transmission over the earliest version of the Internet, it's more than an idle question to examine the network's fragility. It's been more than 20 years since the last systemwide overhaul, and Internet infrastructure is still based on 1970s ideas about computer networks. Headline-making outages of popular Web sites such as YouTube and Twitter merely hint at the damage a full-blown failure could wreak. The Internet protocols that allow computers to communicate in networks have infiltrated every sector of our economy.

"The Internet has moved from being a toy or orn

(Excerpt) Read more at articles.moneycentral.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: economy; internet; newmedia
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To: potlatch

We have approx. 25 stations at our library and this is just a little Town library. On weekends...every station is usually taken.


41 posted on 12/11/2009 1:39:50 PM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: Vermont Lt

I think Gore has a contract in place with Disney Animatronics.

He will never die. He will at some point be merged with the backbone to eliminate bandwidth issues, though.


42 posted on 12/11/2009 1:40:14 PM PST by marron
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To: andy58-in-nh

You forgot one other key component:

Bubble gum.

Duct Tape, BUBBLE GUM, and Bailing wire......

:-)


43 posted on 12/11/2009 1:41:06 PM PST by roaddog727 (It's the Constitution, Stupid!)
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To: FromLori
So imagine: What happens if the Internet breaks?

See "The Machine Stops."

44 posted on 12/11/2009 1:41:33 PM PST by rabscuttle385 (Purge the RINOs! * http://restoretheconstitution.ning.com/)
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To: hennie pennie

I probably jumped too quick with my reply but my first thought was of the WHOLE internet going down, lol.

I have a Freeper friend, here on the forum, who frequently uses her library. They allot her one hour and she said she is surrounded by children, who are not as quiet as they should be.

It certainly wouldn’t be great for Freeping. I know the cost of cable is high for many now.


45 posted on 12/11/2009 1:41:50 PM PST by potlatch (ACTIONS - Speak Louder Than Words)
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To: FromLori

The internets?


46 posted on 12/11/2009 1:41:58 PM PST by ßuddaßudd (7 days - 7 ways Guero >>> with a floating, shifting, ever changing persona.....)
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To: justlurking
Everything else will just route around the break. It might be slower because overall capacity has been reduced, but it doesn't isolate them.

That's the way it's SUPPOSED to work.

But it's far cheaper to have NO redundancy or only pseudo-redundancy (redundant circuits in the same conduit, for example) and there are plenty of places on the 'net where that is the case.

47 posted on 12/11/2009 1:43:27 PM PST by TChris ("Hello", the politician lied.)
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To: Sacajaweau

I just wrote to another about the library alloting one hour a day - if you are even able to ‘get’ one of their computers.

Your earlier comment made me giggle because I was thinking in terms of the whole internet being down, not just your provider, lol.


48 posted on 12/11/2009 1:44:13 PM PST by potlatch (ACTIONS - Speak Louder Than Words)
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To: raybbr
Yeah, she writes the piece as if there is some central computer that runs the entire net

There is!


49 posted on 12/11/2009 1:44:37 PM PST by Focault's Pendulum (This country elected an empty suit, an absolute economic illiterate!!!)
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To: KarlInOhio
The root DNS servers are a potential bottleneck, but there are 12 (13?) of them. You'd have to take out all of them, or exploit a bug that is present in all of them.

I realize that large parts of the 'Net could be slowed down with targeted attacks, but complete outages are restricted to small areas. The exception is an ISP with poor geographical diversity.

A number of years ago, my company was bumped off the 'Net by a flood in a basement several hundred miles away. The ISP didn't have redundant connections to our area, with enough routing diversity to prevent that kind of vulnerability. We dumped them in short order.

50 posted on 12/11/2009 1:45:59 PM PST by justlurking (The only remedy for a bad guy with a gun is a good WOMAN (Sgt. Kimberly Munley) with a gun)
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To: TChris
But it's far cheaper to have NO redundancy or only pseudo-redundancy (redundant circuits in the same conduit, for example) and there are plenty of places on the 'net where that is the case.

As I posted moments ago, there are definitely cases where this occurs. But, it's the fault of providers that have limited peering agreements.

There used to be a backbone diagram of the 'Net in the US, along with its connections overseas. There is plenty of physical diversity in the routing. The problem is if your particular ISP limits which ones it uses.

51 posted on 12/11/2009 1:49:27 PM PST by justlurking (The only remedy for a bad guy with a gun is a good WOMAN (Sgt. Kimberly Munley) with a gun)
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To: Focault's Pendulum

I loved “Overlogging”.


52 posted on 12/11/2009 1:50:29 PM PST by wally_bert (It's sheer elegance in its simplicity! - The Middleman)
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To: VicVega

Yes I do. And I’m only a few blocks away from the node.


53 posted on 12/11/2009 1:55:17 PM PST by OrioleFan (Republicans believe every day is the 4th of July, democrats believe every day is April 15)
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To: VicVega

Those folks at A T&T are regular characters. They nothing but thieves and on cell phones will steal you blind.

My friend told me they don’t tell you; but on pay as you go phone service; if you have money in your account and they think it’s too much and you pay monthly; they will go into your account 2 days before it due or if you are monthly pay from your bank and take all of the money out. They stole 300.00 from his account.

Don’t do business with A T&T. Imagine taking your money before it’s even due. Any lawyers out there that could help this guy.


54 posted on 12/11/2009 2:06:29 PM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
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To: freekitty

Pretty rotten of them to steal from your friend. Sure it is not an isolated case.

The coverage has really going to the crap house.

Drop calls like Tiger drops his drawers.

Sorry Tiger, couldn’t resist.


55 posted on 12/11/2009 2:10:15 PM PST by VicVega (Join Jihad, get captured by the US and resettled in the best places in to the world. I love the USA)
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To: rabscuttle385

Your story reminds me of an old song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izQB2-Kmiic

The Machine Stops.

http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html


56 posted on 12/11/2009 2:19:14 PM PST by FromLori (FromLori)
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To: FromLori

Guess someone has to point out the real problem: No more porn???!!! OMG!!!


57 posted on 12/11/2009 2:27:15 PM PST by Moltke (DOPE will get you 4 to 8 in the Big House - HOPE will get you 4 to 8 in the White House.)
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To: FromLori
"You would be taking businesses that were designed to do all their point-of-sale and financial transactions through the Internet and going back to pen and paper and taking checks in a car to the bank. People would lose their minds."

Since McAfee would fold without the internet, I think he might lose his mind, but for us out here in the sticks it wouldn't change a whole lot.
58 posted on 12/11/2009 2:41:52 PM PST by Nonsense Unlimited
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To: Sacajaweau

You mean that you don’t have your own private room? You better go in there and demand one so you can have uninterrupted use of the internet!


59 posted on 12/11/2009 3:00:27 PM PST by US_MilitaryRules (Become a monthly donor or FR won't be here for you!)
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To: Red_Devil 232
What does GPS have to do with the Internet?

My question too.

60 posted on 12/11/2009 3:06:44 PM PST by sionnsar (IranAzadi|5yst3m 0wn3d-it's N0t Y0ur5:SONY|Remember Neda Agha-Soltan|TV--it's NOT news you can trust)
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