Slashdot Mirror
The Canadian Who Holds the Key To the Internet
drbutts writes "The Toronto Star has an interesting story on how they are securing DNS: 'It's housed in two high-security facilities separated by the North American landmass. The one authenticated map of the Internet. Were it to be lost — either through a catastrophic physical or cyber attack — it could be recreated by seven individuals spread around the globe. One of them is Ottawa's Norm Ritchie. Ritchie was recently chosen to hold one of seven smartcards that can rebuild the root key that underpins this system' called DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions). In essence, these seven can rebuild the architecture that allows users to know for certain where they are and where they are going when navigating the Web."
Think about it, if walmart lost their supply chain, probably 1/3 of Americans would die of malnutrition within a week, or gain 50kg from the take out consumed.
To be honest, the "internet" would keep going, and does indeed route around damage, but the "web" would have the computer version of a stroke if you dropped the root DNS.
...
Walmart is nutritious AND less calories than take-out?! BTW, Americans don't gain kg, pounds or lbs, sure, but not kg.
Or do they summon Captain Planet? ...or Wilford Brimley?
In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.
Ritchie was recently chosen to hold one of seven smartcards that can rebuild the root key that underpins this system' called DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions).
I thought the dwarves got seven cards. And, the humans got nine... and the elves three. Or, am I mixing something up?
I see a new James Bond movie in the making here...
-- Cheers!
One Card to rule them all, One Card to find them,
One Card to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
The truth is, these keys are really just a safe guard in case /. ever posts Article Omega, bringing about the systematic slashdotting of the ENTIRE INTERNET!!!
So please, stop with the paranoid movie plots.
You have to admit this does provide the basis for a pretty good movie plot... I predict that Jason Bourne (or Robert Langdon, or Richard Stallman) will be trying to save at least 5 of these people on screen within a few years.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
Jen: What is it?
Moss: This, Jen, is the Internet.
Jen: What?
Moss: That's right.
Jen: This is the Internet?
[Moss is nodding his head]
Jen: (suspiciously) The whole Internet?
Moss: (agreeably) Yep. I asked for a loan of it, so that you could use it in your speech.
[Roy enters the room.]
Roy: (irritated) Hey! What is Jen doing with the Internet?
Jen: Moss said I could use it for my speech.
[Roy speaks to Moss in an edgy way.]
Roy: Are you insane? What if she drops it?
Jen: I won't drop it, I'll look after it.
Roy: No. No, no, no, no, Jen. [Takes the box back from Jen.] No, this needs to go straight back to Big Ben.
Jen: Big Ben?
Moss: Yep. It goes on top of Big Ben. That's where you get the best reception.
Jen: I promise I won't let anything happen to it.
Roy: No, Jen, I'm sorry. [Jen becomes woeful.] The elders of the Internet would never stand for it.
... and then they built the supercollider.
Earth! Fire! Wind! Water! Heart!
It'd be awesome if they yelled that out as they each scanned their cards.
Yup. Poor disaster planning.
More like typical disaster planning.
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
But, that's half the fun. Damn.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
(But in secret, another smart-card was made - one that could rule all the others...)
Of course they should instead have chosen a system where you need 7 of 9 to restore!
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.