Information on the Internet can be controlled. Someone was doing it. They did it to E-Bay. They did it to E*Trade, disrupting on-line stock trading. They did it to AOL, tying up the lines. They even did it to Microsoft, who were not alone in having sloppy security practices. The Problem is the control of the information, no matter what it is. Someone can control the transfer of information. If they want to stop the information, they can stop it. They can decide what information gets sent.
Knowledge is Power. Information is Knowledge. Controlling the information is Power. And that was the root of the Problem.
The information was being controlled. Knowledge was being controlled. Knowledge is the source of all Power.
Someone was controlling the information on the Net. It was a small control, just delaying packets. But the code in the routers had the capability to totally stop the data packets from being transferred through the Net. That would be a Problem.
You see, when a packet is sent along from one router to the next, the sending router needs to get a "I got there OK" message from the destination router. If that message is not received by the sending router, then the router will send the packet again. The packet might be sent via a different route, but that adds traffic to the net. And the number of packets that were being affected by these routers would put a real strain on the net. The strain could be fatal, especially if the delay routers got out of control.
In 2000, there was a study done of the vulnerability of the Net to a deliberate attack. It concluded that random errors, such as failures of some key routers of the Net, would be survivable because of the redundancy of the connections of the Net.
But if just one percent of the most highly connected Internet routers or web sites were incapacitated, the Net's average performance would be cut in half.
Just one percent.
Now increase that value just a little bit, to four percent. Then the Net loses its integrity, and becomes fragmented. All that is left is just a bunch of small, disconnected domains or areas of the Net. If that happens, there is no Net. You can't get the data from one place to another.
Just four percent.
Data wouldn't move. We're not talking just email here. Think of all the data that moves (or used to move) around the Net. Businesses aren't talking to each other. People aren't buying stuff on the Net. A business doesn't get orders from clients. Stores can't transmit orders to their suppliers. Trucking companies can't get information about shipments. Food can't be delivered to stores. Money is not transferred electronically. Your ATM doesn't work. Your credit card doesn't work. Electrical generation and usage is not being monitored, and can't be transferred throughout the power grid. Gasoline, heating oil, or natural gas can't be sent through the pipelines. Communications satellites don't process data. Cellular phones can't work. Companies can't process billing information.
Everything that society depends on depends on information flowing through the Net. And if that information gets slowed down or stopped, then society is in a bunch of trouble.
As we are now.