Re: [tlug] What would happen to the Internet if the US fell off the map

[Attila Kinali <attila@example.com>]

On Fri, 03 Aug 2007 23:18:15 +0900
"Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com> wrote:

> Attila Kinali writes:
> 
>  > For reference, see the effect of SQL Slammer on the internet end-to-end
>  > connectivity of non-wurm traffic.
> 
> But you're missing an important point here.  Suppose the *whole*
> U.S. dropped off the world (undoubtedly riding atop a Frisch's Big Boy
> statue[1]).  

That reference you have to explain.

> Just how many highpowered PCs with broadband all the way
> to the backbone would be left to suffer from Slammer?

More than enough. Have a look at [1] and you'll see that 7 of
the 10 countries with the highest broadband connectivity rate
are in europe. And not to forget the higher population density
in Europe. Although the USA constitutes for 29% of all connected
computers, it is only 29%, which means that 71% are still left
if the USA goes bonkers.

> While this effect probably doesn't scale all that well from a whole
> city in a country doing its best to drag the Internet back into the
> 60s that drops off the face of the earth, to having the U.S. drop off
> the face of the earth,

If you want to disconnect the USA you just need to get the
big internet exchange points in NY, SF and LA non-functional.
I'd assume that 20-30 people per city should be more than enough
to do that by eg disconnecting the cities from the power grid.

> I think that the rest of the world would not
> lose its most important connection to third places so much as losing
> its largest source and sink of data flows.

Yes, most of the traffic starts or ends in the US, but still,
Asia and Europe would be disconnected.

> I have to wonder, though, if there wouldn't be some dramatic measures
> taken to curb spam.

The spam problem would be gone together with the US [2]
 

			Attila Kinali

[1] http://www.oecd.org/document/9/0,2340,en_2649_201185_37529673_1_1_1_1,00.html
[2] http://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/countries.lasso
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