Why was 15 percent of the world’s internet traffic routed through China for 18 minutes?
Why was 15 percent of the world’s internet traffic routed through China for 18 minutes?
On today’s show, we talk about the fairly loose sets of regulations that govern the international flow of data and the sometimes long and windy path that data might travel between computer and server.
Dmitri Alperovitch is the vice president of Threat Research for the security firm McAfee. He says the idea that one country can take control of all that traffic is less surprising when you consider that the Internet is built on a system of trust between nations without much binding international law to enforce it.
Then again, if any country can intercept information, any country can likewise have their information intercepted, according to Amit Yoran, the CEO of the security company Net Witness. And that can create a sense of detente for the nations of the world who, after all, need to somehow run an internet together.
Dmitri Alperovitch says we need a new internet, this one’s busted. Rebuild the architecture from the ground up. Amit Yoran says even the slightest change would be very hard and take a long time.
Also in this show: by now you know The Beatles are available on iTunes. But they aren’t the last band to join the biggest music retailer in the world. We hear from some of the other holdouts in a musical montage.
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