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Something I understand
Okay, help me out here.
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The
basic idea is that in the event of an Internet catastrophe, the DNSSEC
(domain name system security) could be damaged or compromised and we'd
be left without a way to verify if a URL is pointing to the correct
website. That's when the holders of these smart cards would be called
into action:
A minimum of five of the seven keyholders – one each from Britain,
the U.S., Burkina Faso, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, China, and the
Czech Republic – would have to converge at a U.S. base with their keys
to restart the system and connect everything once again.
A minimum of five people is needed because each of the smart cards
contains only a fraction of the recovery key necessary to set things
right again. This means that no single person will hold all the power
to resetting our little cyber world. [BBC via PopSci]
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Burkina Faso? Trinidad? Tobago?
WTFF? I mean, this sounds like a fine idea, especially if it will
override an effort by Obama to shut down the nets, but why the
five-of-seven verification? I'm prolly way oversimplifying, but
my techno pea-brain sees this as the lights going out prollem.
Why the hell can't anybody reset the fuse? This sounds like
something I should hate\, but don't know why.
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These people simply do not understand. The Internet is only a protocol. It was always built into unix computers, now it is built into windows, Mac computers and cell phones. There are a dozen or so "root" nameservers. The nameservers turn a name USA-UAS-USA.com into a machine usable address (23.10.4.1). that is all it does. If the root nameservers are compromised we can all just point our computers to alternative nameservers - a one paragraph blurb in the newspapers would inform 80% of the population. Or we could spread the info by word of mouth. Many ISP's still have the hardware for dial up connections (modems) and the software for USENET (newsgroups before blogs). Computers could call each other and transport newsgroups and email with no more than a voice telephone line. Lets see them try to turn off all voice communications.
ReplyDeleteWhat's dialup? Can I do that with my VOIP phone?
ReplyDeleteCasca
I think
ReplyDelete"... we'd be left without a way to verify if a URL is pointing to the correct website."
is the issue here.
There is a back door here that they are completely unaware of.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that Phill Zimmermann ( the origianl authoer of PGP ) and anyone who has a PGP key signed by him can chop a certification and MAKE it become trusted.
Any government official who seriously suggests such a constraint
ReplyDeleteon peaceful free speech should be subjected to public vivisection and
rendered down for catfish-chow.
They're simply control-freaks who can't stand effective criticism...
prolly why they commission their own public opinion polls w/spin results.
Bah! Bring on the all consuming flames.
So if the Chicoms give enough rubber dog poop to Trinidad and Tobago they can keep the internet down indefinitely. Has anyone told Al about this?
ReplyDelete