[tor-talk] Russia successfully disconnected from the internet | ZDNet

[s7r]

René Ladan wrote:
> an article about the Russian government and ISPs restricting the internet in Russia: https://www.zdnet.com/article/russia-successfully-disconnected-from-the-internet/
> 

I don't get what is the big news about it? I mean, the news is that they
are doing a terrible thing that provides them a false sense of security,
ideas of censorship and isolation which I am totally against and
strongly discourage, but this article says that "the Russian government
did not disclose any technical details" -- sounds like they invented
some super ultra cyber security solution that they want to keep top secret.

In reality, it is only BGP rules about traffic manipulation. Of course
such rules can be more or less complex, since there might be ISPs in
Russia with AS numbers that are not only in Russia territory, but then
again it can be done much more simply than described in the article and
it's not such a master piece of engineering as pictured in that article.


The only problem is that, while it was meant to counter cyber attacks,
it provides a false sense of security. This is the only reason why other
countries are not doing it, not because they don't have the "magic
technical solution" or they don't know how to code BGP rules :)

It does not worth the downside of someone simulating cyber attacks to
their protected institutions and triggering constant disconnects from
the global internet, destroying business there and causing terrible
financial losses.

Having an authority within the country responsible for such decisions is
also not good, as it gives power to the people there to game the system
in their own benefits. This is not why the internet was invented, to the
contrary it was invented to abolish such things and evil practices.

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