[tt] [technoliberation] The Fragility of the Information Age

Thu Feb 7 07:45:41 UTC 2008

----- Forwarded message from "Hughes, James J." <James.Hughes at trincoll.edu> -----

From: "Hughes, James J." <James.Hughes at trincoll.edu>
Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2008 22:44:22 -0500
To: technoliberation at yahoogroups.com,
	News and views from the IEET <ieet-news at ieet.org>
Subject: [technoliberation] The Fragility of the Information Age
Reply-To: technoliberation at yahoogroups.com

AlterNet

The Fragility of the Information Age

By Annalee Newitz, AlterNet

Posted on February 6, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/76238/

I was raised on the idea that the information age would usher in a
democratic, communication-based utopia, but recently I was offered at
least two object lessons in why that particular dream is a lie.

First, a dead surveillance satellite, one roughly the size of a bus,
fell out of orbit and into a collision course with Earth. It will likely
do no damage, so don't worry about being crushed to death by flying
chunks of the National Security Agency budget. The important part is
that nobody knew when the satellite died. Maybe a year ago? Maybe a few
days? A rep from the National Security Council would only say,
"Appropriate government agencies are monitoring the situation."

Is this our info utopia, wherein we literally lose track of bus-size
shit flying through space over our heads? I mean, how many surveillance
satellites do we have? It's not like I love the techno-surveillance
state, but it is a little shocking that the SIGINT nerds who run it are
so out of touch that they can't even keep track of their orbiting spy
gear. Still, it's hard to be too upset when Big Brother isn't watching.

But that satellite could just as easily have been a forgotten
communications satellite dive-bombing our atmosphere. And that would
have sucked, especially since last week's mega Internet outage across
huge parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia didn't bring down the
global economy largely because people had satellite access to the
Internet. This Internet outage, which took millions of people (and a few
countries) off-line, happened when two 17,000-mile underwater
fiber-optic cables running between Japan and Europe were accidentally
cut. And this week, five more cables were mysteriously cut. No one is
quite sure how they were severed, but it was most likely due to human
error -- an anchor was probably dropped in the wrong place.

And so big chunks of Dubai went dark, as did many Southeast Asian
countries. Businesses couldn't operate; people couldn't communicate. The
people and businesses that were able to keep running were by and large
the ones that didn't depend on cheap Internet services that use only one
or two cables to route their traffic. It's cheaper to rent time on one
cable, but if that cable is cut, you lose everything. Most customers
don't research how their Internet service providers route Internet
traffic across the Asian continent -- or across the Pacific Ocean -- so
they don't realize their communications could be disrupted, possibly for
weeks, if some drunken sailor drops anchor in the wrong spot.

In fact, few of us anywhere in the world consider the fact that our info
utopia is a fragile thing based on networks that are both material and
vulnerable. We think of the Internet as a world of ideas, a place "out
there," unburdened by physical constraints. Even if you wanted to
research which physical cables your ISP uses to route your traffic, it
would be very difficult to do without a strong technical background and
the help of the North American Network Operators' Group list, an e-mail
list for high-level network administrators.

So why do a crashing spy satellite and a partly dark Internet mean we've
entered the age of information dystopia? Quite simply, they are signs
that our brave new infrastructure is failing around us even as we claim
that it offers a shining path to the future. It's as if the future is
breaking down before we get a chance to realize its potential.

But the information age doesn't have to end this way, in a world where
can-and-string-network jokes aren't so funny anymore. There are a few
simple things we could do. We could help consumers better understand
what happens when they buy Internet access by showing them what routes
their traffic might take and giving them realistic statistics about
possible outages. People could then make better choices about what
services to buy. And so could telcos and nations.

Why shouldn't we have solid research on which ISPs are most likely to
suffer the kind of network outages we just witnessed from the severing
of those two cables? Consumer groups could undertake this research. Or,
since developed nations suffer more, perhaps the United Nations might
want to conduct the investigation as a matter of Internet governance. We
know where car traffic and sea traffic go. Why don't we know where
Internet traffic goes?

Another thing we could do to stop the information dystopia is to cut
down on spy satellites, but that, as they say, is another column.

Annalee Newitz (annalee at techsploitation.com) is a surly media nerd who
is investing in semaphore communication networks.
(c) 2008 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/76238/

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