NETWORKING
Subsea cable map
How do I kill the internet ? Based on the kind of research that ’ s definitely put me on several terrorist watch lists , it seems like there are two main ways to harm the internet in a meaningful sense : cut the cables , and find a way to shut down a surprisingly small number of hyperscale data centres .
Whether either , or both of these methods together , would actually turn it off for good is debatable , but given the level of disruption caused by a faulty server knocking out Reddit for an hour , I think it ’ s safe to assume that taking down the Internet for a whole month could pretty handily trigger the downfall of human civilisation . Cut the Wires This may sound simplistic , but subsea cables are the veins and arteries carrying the lifeblood of the Internet beneath the sea . They represent very physical , tangible targets that are too large to properly defend . There ’ s even a handy map with a useful list of potential targets available for free on the Internet ( et tu , Brutus ?).
Subsea cables are both a physical and cyber vulnerability of the modern Internet , and roughly 99 % of global web traffic depends on them . Of course , as Bill Kleyman ( whose name sounds delightfully similar to Hans Gruber ’ s alias in Die Hard ) wrote in a 2014 article , “ you can ’ t just cut the wires . Why ? Because they ’ re designed to be fixed .” However , he adds that “ a strategic strike that will take out the fibre optic cables or damage the entire wire will do the trick . If this is done at choke points you can disable or almost completely halt global Internet traffic .”
How to take out a hyperscale data centre Fibre optic cables are also , according to a top exec at a leading data centre brand whose communications team requested he remain anonymous , one of the simplest ways to tackle the second phase of my plan : knocking out some of the world ’ s biggest data centres .
“ One of the easiest ways to knock out a hyperscale data centre would be to target the incoming fibre positions , which are
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