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Internet Failure Disrupts India, Middle East
by
findingDulcinea Staff
An Internet outage in India, the Middle East and North Africa highlights the global economy's vulnerability to high-tech breakdowns.
30-Second Summary
On Jan. 31, business activity stalled in large areas of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa because of disruptions in Internet and phone services. The outage has been blamed on a severed cable in the Mediterranean Sea. Experts say the problem could take weeks to fix.
In December 2006, a powerful earthquake disrupted high-tech services in huge parts of Asia, slowing down commerce for days.
“Even with all the technological advances we have come up with in the course of human history, it only takes one calamity ... to bring us back to the dark ages,” J. Angelo Racoma, assistant editor of the Blog Herald, wrote two days after the quake.
A report by the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs of large American companies, says that an Internet collapse would reduce output and profits, cause stocks to fall and stop consumer spending. The group classified the risk of such a collapse as “urgent and real.”
But the BR does not represent the only opinion on the matter. There are those who say there is no need to worry.
“When hurricanes disrupt traffic along the East Coast of the United States, traffic is seamlessly routed to the West Coast. And when a domain name server goes down, an alternate server picks up the traffic,” wrote Computer World citing Patrick Cain, chairman of a network security working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
Michael Long, a senior official at Siemens Medical Solutions, said his company does not rely so heavily on the Internet, but that it is prepared for an emergency.
In December 2006, a powerful earthquake disrupted high-tech services in huge parts of Asia, slowing down commerce for days.
“Even with all the technological advances we have come up with in the course of human history, it only takes one calamity ... to bring us back to the dark ages,” J. Angelo Racoma, assistant editor of the Blog Herald, wrote two days after the quake.
A report by the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs of large American companies, says that an Internet collapse would reduce output and profits, cause stocks to fall and stop consumer spending. The group classified the risk of such a collapse as “urgent and real.”
But the BR does not represent the only opinion on the matter. There are those who say there is no need to worry.
“When hurricanes disrupt traffic along the East Coast of the United States, traffic is seamlessly routed to the West Coast. And when a domain name server goes down, an alternate server picks up the traffic,” wrote Computer World citing Patrick Cain, chairman of a network security working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
Michael Long, a senior official at Siemens Medical Solutions, said his company does not rely so heavily on the Internet, but that it is prepared for an emergency.
Headline Links: Internet down on two continents
On Jan. 31, business activity stalled in large areas of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa after the regions were cut off from the Internet. A cable failure in the Mediterranean was blamed for the outage, although that has not been confirmed. India and nations in the Gulf and North Africa are experiencing severe problems. The outage disrupted telephone and television services as well.
Source: CNN
A ship is believed to have severed two cables in the Mediterranean Sea, causing an outage that cut Internet access in most of Northern Africa, the Middle East and Southern Asia. Business activity and high-tech services were disrupted as well. Rajesh Chharia, president of India’s Internet Service Providers’ Association, said that almost 60 percent of the country’s bandwidth has been cut.
Source: The Financial Times
The Internet outages have affected India’s massive outsourcing industry. "Most of our work [and] consultation with our overseas customers, is done online. The Internet is our main business tool," said an official from an investment consulting firm. The Internet breakdown has also disrupted traffic at the Dubai stock exchange.
Source: AOL Money
Background: The 2006 Taiwan earthquake
A powerful earthquake disrupted Internet and phone services in huge parts of Asia in December 2006, slowing business for days.
Source: The International Herald Tribune
Opinion & Analysis: An Internet-centered economy is vulnerable
“An Internet meltdown would result in reduced productivity and profits, falling stock prices, erosion of consumer spending and potentially a liquidity crisis,” wrote Computer World citing a report by The Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs of large American companies. The collapse could be caused by “malicious code, coding error, natural disasters, [or] attacks by terrorists and other adversaries.” The purpose of the report was to alert companies to their vulnerability stemming from their dependence on the Internet.
Source: Computer World
A companion story in Computer World says that firms can protect themselves against Internet failure. “If you are on the West Coast, maybe you should get a cheap Web host on the East Coast set up as a fail-over site,” Patrick Cain, chairman of a network security working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force, advises readers.
Source: Computer World
There is also a process called “network-ingress filtering,” which has been renamed Best Current Practice 38, that can protect companies from Internet vulnerabilities. This proces can halt denial-of-service attacks, but according to Computer World, few companies have implemented it.
Source: Computer World
“Even with all the technological advances we have come up with in the course of human history, it only takes one calamity ... to bring us back to the dark ages ... We’re not actually experiencing another ice age yet ... but in some parts of Asia, we feel like the Information Age has been put on hold,” J. Angelo Racoma, assistant editor of the Blog Herald, wrote after a 2006 earthquake in Taiwan caused widespread Internet and phone service outages.
Source: Blog Herald
Reference: The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team
“By targeting your computer and its network connection, or the computers and network of the sites you are trying to use, an attacker may be able to prevent you from accessing email, Web sites, online accounts (banking, etc.), or other services that rely on the affected computer,” according to a definition of “denial-of-service attack” by the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team.
Source: United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team
The Internet Storm Center provides information on online threats. Although the Center reported AT&T service disruptions throughout the central and southeastern United States, its threat alert remained at its least alarming level—green.
Source: The Internet Storm Center
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