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iluom
Contributor II

Nation states with autonomous internet or turn-off to www....will it work? What is the influence ?

 

I think its good to look for the possibility to have central authority to the world's internet infrastructure rather having autonomous internet or disconnect to internet by sovereign states for reasons like protect from illicit usage and hacking.  

 

If a country is trying to build a fully autonomous internet , what would be the major component required? Is it own alternative DNS!!!! ???...

 

 

Chandra Mouli, CISSP, CCSP, CSSLP
12 Replies
Caute_cautim
Community Champion

Try saying that to Microsoft Azure right now - less we forget those important protocols, that everyone neglects:

 

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/05/02/microsoft_azure_outage_dns/

 

Regards

 

Caute_cautim

Caute_cautim
Community Champion

You mean like China?

 

Regards

 

Caute_cautim

Shannon
Community Champion

 

 


@Caute_cautim wrote:

Try saying that to Microsoft Azure right now - less we forget those important protocols, that everyone neglects:

 

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/05/02/microsoft_azure_outage_dns/

 

Our organization was initially hosting all the web-accessible services on-site, but recently moved at least 1 to the Azure cloud, so that might have not been continually available. I don't know if the impact was felt, 'coz it's rarely accessed except during working hours, and even much less these days, courtesy of Ramadan.

 

 

Shannon D'Cruz,
CISM, CISSP

www.linkedin.com/in/shannondcruz
CraginS
Defender I

Mouli,

 

You asked, “what would be the major component required?” I’d say the most fundamental major requirement would be the physical layer that connects all network devices, supporting the electronic communication. With absolute control over the  means of transmitting the content, the controlling entity would be in a position to control and  protect  much more reliably the many aspects of the logical layer.  If the entire network can be based on wires, control is much better. More likely, much of the physical layer will have to be based on radio waves, making the external connections (or lack thereof) much more tricky. See the discussion below for more about the physical and logical layers of the network.

 

As for your question about  recall that the DNS is only a translator table to provide nominally human-understandable identifiers for the many network components. The network itself does not need a DNS at all, because it uses either all digital identifiers for each device on the network, which might be human-encoded as numeric or alpha-numeric sequences.  

 

I'm not sure how well versed you are in the intricacies of network architectures, so I will cover some basics that you may well already understand. Please don't be offended if it seems too basic, but feel assured that many Community members who have expertise in areas other than network technology may appreciate the discussion.

 

To begin with, every network, whether a single network or an inter-network set of collected networks, must have both a physical layer and a logical layer. The physical layer provides the electronic connection between computing devices. The logical layer provides the identification of all of the connected devices, as well as handling the routing of the electronic (nominally digital) traffic among those devices. 

 

Once upon a time the physical layer was based completely on wires. Today, the physical layer of a network may include any or all of the following technologies: wires, optical fiber, and radio waves in a variety of wavelength groups. The radio waves may be microwave, shortwave, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3rd, 4th (LTE), and 5th Generation (3G/4G/5G) cell phone, and several others, defined by international conventions on frequency management. 

 

Today the most common logical layer is based on the conventions and protocols for the Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Most legacy TCP/IP networks are based on TCP/IP version 4, but we are seeing a rapid adoption of version 6, especially in Asia. Further, many networks are using a combined V4 and V6 configuration across the physical layer. Understand that TCP/IP is not the only logical layer framework; it was preceded by others, most notably the ISO network protocol, for which the seven OSI layers framework was developed. TCP/IP does not implement the 7 OSI layers, but that framework is still taught in almost every intro course on networking, mainly because it is easy to teach and test on. My discussion here folds layers 2 through 7 into what I am calling the logical layer.

 

Back to your question about nation-state or other entity controlled networks, which you are calling autonomous. I would not use the word autonomous, since that word has other implications about self-management. Nonetheless, as we see nation-state network control in China, Russia, several countries in the Middle Easts. the concerns are really about a combination of network resiliency, reliability, and security, overlaid with concerns about security, content, control, censorship, end-user monitoring, and privacy management. 

 

There could be a deep and lively discussion on this topic, which would be fun to assign to the class of an introductory network architecture course. We’ll see if the community member add to these thoughts in this thread. Even asking for comparisons between the OSI 7 layer framework and the actual implementation of a TCP./IP V4 or V6 network would be meaningful.

 

 

D. Cragin Shelton, DSc
Dr.Cragin@iCloud.com
My Blog
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rslade
Influencer II


@iluom wrote:

 

I think its good to look for the possibility to have central authority to the world's internet infrastructure rather having autonomous internet or disconnect to internet by sovereign states for reasons like protect from illicit usage and hacking.


Syntax error: "central authority" and "Internet" used in the same sentence.

 


If a country is trying to build a fully autonomous internet , what would be the major component required? Is it own alternative DNS!!!! ???...

Look, TCP/IP is built to be fully autonomous.  Somewhere here I've posted a story about a friend from NASA who found out just how hard TCP/IP works to get communications through.  As John Gilmore said, "The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."  If you want to go a step further, I have proposed PeopleNet or PopulistNet, to avoid any attachment to telcos or carriers of any kind.


............

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iluom
Contributor II

RUnet by Russia

 

 

Chandra Mouli, CISSP, CCSP, CSSLP
Flyslinger2
Community Champion

Rules are made for those who need them.  That is my #1 postulate for life. Mrs. Fly learned that about me while we were dating in college several decades ago. It hasn't changed.

 

Anyone making rules has an agenda. Those on the receiving end of the rules may not appreciate the rule.

 

The early predecessor to the Internet, DARPANet, was developed for the FREE exchange of research results and newly developed software in the U.S. of A..  No money exchanged hands. No marketing guru's are trying to influence usage. No social sites are trying to grab more of your attention. No nation states were trying to regulate the use of that network.

 

TCP/IP (Intranet) was one of the protocols developed as a result of this collaboration and it's goal was to connect networks to other networks. Connect. Not disconnect.  Disconnect is the same as the word rule is to me.  

 

If a nation-state is trying to regulate the use of the Internet it's rarely for the good of the consumer.  I get it that there is junk out there that no one should ever see or be involved with.  We here are proponents of the healthy use of the Internet and encourage the habits of good computer hygiene when using the web.  There are those countries who still think that they have to go further with their rules to make you conform to their world view.  Some nation-states do this for fear of a political uprising. Some do it because of their deep religious beliefs.  Some are combined which makes it more difficult to get through.  

 

The nature of man is to revolt when an overbearing rule is forced upon them. History is full of these revolutions.  Many revolutions were either property or religious in their origin. Someone stole their neighbors chicken and the owner wanted it back. The interpretation of a religious document is hotly contested and the results are wars between nations.  The Internet is not a tangible item that someone can own.  They may TRY to limit it's access by rules. But rules ....

 

Hacking is a a natural outcome of those rules that are being imposed on the consumer.   Right or wrong, I'm not judging at this point, the hacker sets about to go around the imposition so that they can continue using the resource that they have in the past.  I use VPN's to mask my location. I use browsers that do not leave trails of my activities.  I use other tools to further obfuscate my online presence. Am I a hacker?  

 

I think those nation states that are trying to build autonomous networks are nutz.  Sure, they will get the lemmings to comply but there will be many that won't and those are the ones who will revolt, most likely for the good.

AppDefects
Community Champion

To all you CI analysts and Internet conspiracy theorists out there: we are seeing a kindlier, more gentler China emerging. Recently, Chinese President Xi Jinping said during his keynote at the World Internet Conference that China would like to work together with the international community to "ensure the common well-being of humanity, uphold cyberspace sovereignty and promote more fair and equitable global internet governance". http://www.wuzhenwic.org/XiatWIC.html

AppDefects
Community Champion

A new iron curtain emerges over Russia! Putin signed the so called “sovereign Runet law” or the “law on the secured internet.” on May 1, 2019 requiring Russia to build its own Domain Name System (DNS). Secret tests reportedly showed that isolating the Russian internet is possible, but that 'everything' would go back online within 30 minutes."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/05/01/putin-signs-russian-internet-law-to-disconnect-th...

 

https://mbk-news.appspot.com/suzhet/budet-li-internet-v-rossii-suverennym/