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Egypt's Net Ruled By Phone, Not Kill Switch

Posted by timothy on from the so-when-you-shatter-some-of-the-tubes dept.

schliz writes "Judging by the time it took for Egypt to go offline and back online, the Internet Society speculates that the country's connectivity is controlled by a 'series of phone calls', rather than a 'kill switch'. The Government-imposed internet blackout lasted five days, beginning last Friday, and ending on Wednesday."

2 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. it's a figure of speech by outsider007 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think some people are imagining a light switch. Next to a red nuke button and a bat phone.

    --
    If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
  2. Re:Hardly matters... by Kokuyo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What it does mean is that the discussion about a kill-switch is moot. In most countries, only a handful of organizations run international backbones. Just about every country could take the net down in such a fashion.

    A literal kill-switch might just work a bit faster.