Engineers Ponder Easier Fix To Internet Problem

itwbennett writes "The problem: Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) enables routers to communicate about the best path to other networks, but routers don't verify the route 'announcements.' When routing problems erupt, 'it's very difficult to tell if this is fat fingering on a router or malicious,' said Joe Gersch, chief operating officer for Secure64, a company that makes Domain Name System (DNS) server software. In a well-known incident, Pakistan Telecom made an error with BGP after Pakistan's government ordered in 2008 that ISPs block YouTube, which ended up knocking Google's service offline. A solution exists, but it's complex, and deployment has been slow. Now experts have found an easier way."

Comments

Well????

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Tell everyone routing is broken.
2. Break it.
3. ???
4. Profit.

Please tell us so we can get to 4.

Re:Well????

[dgatwood]

Or crawl through the barrage of bullets muttering something about uptime (obligatory xkcd).

Congressional Approval

[ComputerInsultant]

Do these engineers have approval from the US government to make these changes? Changes like this could break the ability to break the Internet. Can't have that.