Preparing for the Worst in IT

mplex writes "How vulnerable is the internet to terrorist attack? Is it robust enough to handle an outage on a massive scale? Should the commercial infrastructure that powers the internet be kept secret? These are the sorts of questions raised by Mark Gibbs in his latest column in Network World. 'There is an alternate route available for nearly all services through Las Vegas or Northern California serving all facilities-based carriers in Los Angeles -- all interconnected at numerous L.A. and L.A.-area fiber-optic terminals supporting both metro and long-distance cable.' Given that the internet thrives on open networks, it's hard to imagine keeping them a secret. At best, we must be prepared to deal with the worst."

Comments

Re:What about a boogeyman attack?

[nido]

The goal of terrorism is to instill terror. They've failed on my part, but it looks like they're doing a pretty good job with the masses.

The goal of Imperialists is to instill terror, because it makes 'the masses' (aka 'us') easy to control. We fight back by exposing the bastards for what they are. Imagine gwb spending the rest of his life in a glass prison at the zoo, with a little plaque: "Homo sapien, George W. Bush. Presidency stolen on his behalf in 2000 and 2004. Convicted of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, 2010."

But maybe you're not one of us. Do you work for a living? Or, are you friends with the Bush crime family? The Rockefellers? etc, etc...

Re:What about a boogeyman attack?

[ScentCone]

You have nothing to fear but fear itself. Now quit being a chickenshit.

Do you wear a seatbelt? I guess not, since you're not worried about the difference between being hit head on by a drunk driver while wearing one and being hit while not wearing one, right?

Why does wanting to prepare for a network outage equate, in your mind, to "fearing?" Preparation to avoid a disruptive pain in the ass isn't the same as sitting there quaking in fear of it.