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The Countries Most Vulnerable To an Internet Shutdown
Sparrowvsrevolution writes "In the wake of Syria's 52-hour digital blackout last week, the networking firm Renesys performed an analysis of which countries are most susceptible to an Internet shutdown, based simply on how many distinct entities control the connections between the country's networks and those of the outside world. It found that for 61 countries and territories, just one or two Internet service providers maintain all external connections–a situation that could make possible a quick cutoff from the world with a well-placed government order or physical attack."
and anyone still in Second Life.
Maybe I don't get the way this is measured well, but why isn't China one of the riskiest country ? Are we regularly overestimating the power of the Chinese government on its Internet or his the measure showing something else than "ability to control and shutdown Internet" ?
Oh wait...
New Economic Perspectives
Most people in the US probably wouldn't notice if we were cut off from the outside world for quite a while. Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, etc is all hosted within the US I believe. I can't think of any sites that are primarily hosted outside of the US that a *majority* of US citizens use on a daily basis.
At least i can still play my diablo III in single player mode...
Be seeing you...
The most telling comment from the actual orginal post reads:
"Ten providers also seems to be the threshold below which one finds significant additional risks from infrastructure sharing — there may be a single cable, or a single physical-layer provider who actually owns most of the infrastructure on which the various providers offer their services."
How many of the 61 at "severe risk" countries are micro-states in the middle of the ocean with a single cable connecting them to the internet? More than half; so nothing too sinister about the size of the "severe risk" category.
Oh - it's nice to see that New Zealand has cemented its place in the list of nice countries who are "extremely resistant" by having more than 40 ISPs - unfortunately there's only one organisation that controls the two connections out of NZ on the Southern Cross Cable So the home of that fiendish master-criminal Mr K. Dot Com should rightly be lumped in with Syria, Libya & that famous hot bed of international crime, The Cook Islands.
Just basing this on how many connections there are is pretty irrelevant. Are we really expecting there to be many unofficial major backbones crossing national borders? Could you really enumerate them if there were? Even assuming some random people have a line (wired or otherwise) across a border for network access, this is probably not going to route the majority of the country's traffic anyway, and is equally unlikely to be counted in this survey.
A real measure would be more like "how likely will an entity have to shut down their connection due to government pressure," but for that you need to analyze the legal system, political situation, history, etc. Of course, that's much more work than simple counting, but I suppose "simple counting" is the most we can expect from a pop media source.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
Also listed is Jersey. I'm picturing a small totalitarian English isle similar to The Prisoner.
I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
Why does Slashdot keep linking to secondary sources, like Forbes.com, when the primary source is so easily available? Laziness would be my first guess.
Here is the much-better Renesys blog post: http://www.renesys.com/blog/2012/11/could-it-happen-in-your-countr.shtml
Questions about their methods of reasoning are the most interesting.
There may be 5 ISPs, each operating their own logical notwork, with their own IP space, servers, and everything--but they may all share the same physical fibre optic cable out of the country--especially if the country is an Island. New Zealand would be a good example of this: it is about 1500 km from Australia, and 1000 km from Fiji. There are only a few submarine fibre optic cables connecting to the rest of the world. Perhaps Southern Cross Cable and SPIN only?
The authors acknowledge they were mostly unable to analyse this, and had to guess about the number of physical conduits. They say they will have more to say about the limited physical connections in the future.
Remember that the internet was invented for the specific military purpose of withstanding a nuclear war.
[citation needed]
How many of the 61 at "severe risk" countries are micro-states in the middle of the ocean with a single cable connecting them to the internet? More than half; so nothing too sinister about the size of the "severe risk" category.
And most of the rest in the poorer countries of Africa, where the answer to the question "Why do you have one ISP?" would be "Because it's one more than zero". Even with monopoly rent it's pretty hard making business on people that are that poor and probably for the most part don't have computers at all. Anyway, I find the numbers quite meaningless since they don't measure physical redundancy, resistance to government interference or consumer choice. Average number of providers available per person would be interesting though, I bet the US would end up in the "extremely high risk" monopoly/duopoly category. Though I guess after that the researchers can forget asking any ISPs for work...
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Right because we're so much dumber than the rest of the world. Typical superiority-complex having nerd.
If you expanded that poll to Americans in general, definitely optimistic. Heck, I don't know that I could do more than 10% these days (of course, much has changed since I last took Geography). As a child I could also name all the (US) states and their capitals, but like everything else I learned in school that I don't need to know in day-to-day life, I have forgotten many. The stuff that sticks is the conceptual stuff & the stuff you actually use. The rest was just mental exercise.
"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
Be glad we can't find your country on a map. Bad things can happen to countries that draw American attention. I know where Iraq, Korea, and Germany is. Americans should not need to know where your country is or who your president is. You shouldn't need to know who the American president is either.
Hmm, your argument is convincing however I think I'm going to stick to stockpiling the one resource that will stand the test of time: gold. And by gold I mean delicious Kraft Mac & Cheese of which I estimate my body is comprised of at least 95%. When the great cataclysm comes, as long as we can grow wheat, and whatever plant / animal / petroleum derivative orange 'cheese' powder comes from then the scientists and engineers of this world will persevere!
Account -> Discussions -> Disable Sigs
Does anyone have a link to a chart of average IQs in Western countries...? :).
I'm tippin not all of them are 100
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fA2RjSyq8L4/TMxnvR5JQLI/AAAAAAAAGyg/blddZkpRT-M/s1600/AverageIQ-Map-World.png