Four Ways the Internet Might Let Us Down

August 8, 2012

As people wave their hands in agony at journalist Mat Honan’s unfortunate encounter with hackers who saw fit to delete his, well, everything, I’m randomly reminded of a piece by one of my favorite scientists, David Eagleman. Eagleman recently wrote a piece for CNN titled Four Ways The Internet Could Go Down, and he details some scary but apparently entirely possible ways in which we could all scoot back to the dark ages without so much as a by your leave. It’s compelling stuff:

1. Space Weather. Writes Eagleman: “A major solar event could theoretically melt down the whole Internet. What earthquakes, bombs, and terrorism cannot do might be accomplished in moments by a solar corona.”

2. Cyberwarfare. Writes Eagleman: “If you want to take down your enemy, start by shredding his Net.”

3. Political Mandate. Here Eagleman writes of the proposed Internet Kill Switch that would have given the President authority to “shut down private sector or government networks in the event of a cyber attack capable of causing massive damage or loss of life.” (This feels a little out of place given that this provision was removed from the bill that’s currently in front of Congress, but I suppose it could always be reinstated. Forewarned and forearmed and all that.)

4. Cable Cutting. Writes Eagleman: “More than 99 percent of global Web traffic is dependent on deep-sea networks of fiber-optic cables that blanket the ocean floor like a nervous system.” He then tells of undersea sabotage that should belong in a James Bond film but apparently belongs in real life.

It’s fascinating and provocative, and Eagleman’s conclusion, that as the generation lucky enough to witness the inception of the Internet and the web, we should darned well be responsible for its protection, is hard to argue with.

8:46am | URL: https://tmblr.co/ZLv7dxQ-G5dp
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(Notes: 13)