Could the internet ever be switched off – or destroyed?

Could the internet ever be switched off – or destroyed? By Chris Baraniuk
11 March 2015

The author says there are about 30 substantial nodes in the internet, on the equivalent of “Linx”, the London Internet Exchange. He discusses a coordinated attack on those facilities. Then he moves on to attacks on transoceanic cables. Then to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. And on to BGP or “border gateway protocol” hijacking.

Vincent Chan, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says “I think a massive attack to bring down the whole internet is actually possible.”

Quote: Pacomartin

Could the internet ever be switched off – or destroyed? By Chris Baraniuk
11 March 2015

The author says there are about 30 substantial nodes in the internet, on the equivalent of “Linx”, the London Internet Exchange. He discusses a coordinated attack on those facilities. Then he moves on to attacks on transoceanic cables. Then to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. And on to BGP or “border gateway protocol” hijacking.

Vincent Chan, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says “I think a massive attack to bring down the whole internet is actually possible.”

remember those space aliens who attacked the planet but needed our satellites to relay their countdown? Its pretty much the same thing. the rebels in xxxxx rarely attack the pipelines or airlines because when the rebels take over they want the infrastructure to be up and running and putting money into their pockets.

russia cut the atlantic cable... nothing happened. we did Ivy bells (bugged a military underseas cable), nothing happened.
If the internet goes down how can anyone run past posting bets on "live" sports. if the banks say 'we won't pay out because we don't know what came in"... how will the rebels accounts remain fat and stable? If domain names all go down and time servers all go down who really benefits from it all??

don't you know kidnappers in africa use gps and sat phones? Pirates in the Indian ocean, can be Jewish or Islamic, but either way, they use AIS and GPS. You think multimillion dollar fishing in Australian waters by Indonesian peasants doesn't use satellites?

what about qantas airlines inviting everyont to the Nw territory's spice festivals? the rebels know he world has to keep functioning.

Well, the Internet was made to facilitate military communications in case of a USSR nuclear attack, so there is that. But yes, it could be taken down. I do not think a blast would be the best way, more likely to be load it with so much traffic it crashes.

Anything in existence can be destroyed. But there are degrees of difficulty.

Question: can you destroy a star? How would you go about it?

Quote: Nareed

Question: can you destroy a star? How would you go about it?

No. It's impossible (with current technology) to destroy a star. A nuclear weapon wouldn't make much of a dent; it'd be a dust mite on an elephant.

Then there's the problem of distance. I'm no expert, but if you weigh out all the pros & cons, it'd probably not be a good idea to destroy our own sun. Which is a bummer, because beyond our own sun, the closest star (Proxima Centauri) is 93 million miles away. Assuming our nuke could go as fast as the fastest unmanned space probe in history (Helios 2), you're looking at a travel time of 19,000 human years.

More trouble than it's worth, eh?

Quote: reno

No. It's impossible (with current technology) to destroy a star.

With existing technology it would be impossible.

What about foreseeable technologies?

Quote:

Then there's the problem of distance. I'm no expert, but if you weigh out all the pros & cons, it'd probably not be a good idea to destroy our own sun.

Who knows whose suns we might need to destroy in the future. There's an ep in Stargate SG-1 where they blow up a sun. Like that ;)

Quote:

Which is a bummer, because beyond our own sun, the closest star (Proxima Centauri) is 93 million miles away.

I think your spell checker removed repeated words.

Quote: Nareed

Question: can you destroy a star? How would you go about it?

'You'll never work in Hollywood again." is how they used to do it.

Quote: rxwine

'You'll never work in Hollywood again." is how they used to do it.

For that kind of "star" it may work.

The yellow press was ruthless and vicious, about it. Remember poor Fatty Arbuckle :(

Quote: reno

Then there's the problem of distance. I'm no expert, but if you weigh out all the pros & cons, it'd probably not be a good idea to destroy our own sun. Which is a bummer, because beyond our own sun, the closest star (Proxima Centauri) is 93 million miles away. Assuming our nuke could go as fast as the fastest unmanned space probe in history (Helios 2), you're looking at a travel time of 19,000 human years.

Methinks there is an error here. The Sun is 93 million miles away IIRC.

Quote: Pacomartin

Could the internet ever be switched off – or destroyed?

Where is the internet? That question kept a bunch of stoners busy for hours.

Just wait. I am. One day a CME is gonna knock out everything. It just happened in the late 1800's but there wasn't much in the way of electronics to disrupt. It happens today, it's gonna be a scene. Then the fun begins.

Quote: Fleastiff

remember those space aliens who attacked the planet but needed our satellites to relay their countdown? Its pretty much the same thing. the rebels in xxxxx rarely attack the pipelines or airlines because when the rebels take over they want the infrastructure to be up and running and putting money into their pockets.

You assume it would be done for profit. Some men just want to watch the world burn. All these c#$%s what are taking down things now rarely do so for personal gain.

Quote: Nareed

Question: can you destroy a star? How would you go about it?

Load it with Au. When a star uses up all its H, then its He, and on and on, it eventually reaches Au. That's when it goes boom.

I dunno how it'd work if there was Au present while still having H to burn. I also don't know how much would be needed to set something off. But the idea of a giant golden rocket plunging into the sun amuses me for some reason.