BGP (in)security makes the AP wire

Sun May 9 15:54:46 UTC 2010

On 5/9/2010 08:32, Steven Bellovin wrote:
> http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/05/08/business/AP-US-TEC-Fragile-Internet.html
>
>  It's a pretty reasonable article, too, though I don't know that I
> agree about the "simplicity of the routing system"....

I worry about the implications in the article in the environment of
recent news....

IRS (or FTC, or FCC) maintains a hosts.txt that everybody uses instead
of BGP?

I wonder how telephone calls are routed?  (I know how they were in the
60's and 70's--I really don't know how the current system works.

And when I drive someplace, I do indeed go by the signs I see, which are
not erected by a central authority, as I move along.  (I don't have a
route from here to Fairbanks, Alaska, but my MCA shows one from here to
Council Bluffs, Iowa, and from there there are several I might use,
depending on what signs I see ("Warning, I29 N closed at Mondamin due to
flooding") when I get there.)

I'm sorry, but I am very afraid of "Central Authority".

-- 
Somebody should have said:
A democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner.

Freedom under a constitutional republic is a well armed lamb contesting
the vote.

Requiescas in pace o email
Ex turpi causa non oritur actio
Eppure si rinfresca

ICBM Targeting Information:  http://tinyurl.com/4sqczs
http://tinyurl.com/7tp8ml