China and Russia start again with this UN internet takeover bull**** A new submission to the UN's General Assembly from China, Russia and the 'stans may reignite fears of a government takeover of the internet. Dated 13 January but only appearing now in English, the document (A/69/723) [PDF] is an "update" of the countries' "international code of conduct for information security." That code of …
When several things happen:
1) 100% agreement on this and anything else that comes up in the 12 months (I figure a year would be a good start).
2) 100% of the member nations actually follow the mandates from the UN for 12 months.
3) 100% of the member nations are completely paid up on their dues and fees.
Given the history of UN and it's member countries... if those aren't met, the Internet will be just so much cable laying around the countryside. And yes, the US is included in these. Crikey, they can barely agree on the "official" snack food much less anything else.
China effectively has. While you can interoperate with them at the most basic IP level, everything beyond that - routing protocols, core transports, etc has been "tweaked" with Huawei and ZTE specific features to the point where it is barely recognizable. Every time there is a standard position split in the IETF the Chinese chose (quite deliberately too) the option which nobody likes and drive it to ensure that that:
1. The standard body is stalled without a decision for the next 3+ years (which justifies such UN submissions)
2. They end up with a different implementation locally ensuring that the local vendors have market advantage.
A new state that has no permanent citizens.
Size? Well several buildings scattered around the world, some components within buildings, several billion miles of copper and fibre, several chunks of metal whizzing about the planet and all the blinking routers and modems on the planet.
Governance? Well not any of the governments that want it for themselves, to be sure, but the WW community (WWC) brought together by an oversight committee formed from currently invested bodies.
Every minute detail of how Netopia functions can be debated and voted for on-line by everyone who has an interest.
Foreign Policy. All requests to invade individuals privacy are considered by three judges who are randomly picked from a long list of professionals who have been voted onto that list by the WWC. They are then tasked for that case only to consider the merit of the request, whilst having the protection of anonymity. Other than knowing which country is making a case for intrusion the judges will be unaware who the targeted person/s is/are and therefore cannot themselves be accused of leaking or otherwise compromising a nations security. Obviously countries that are abusing the process will find it more and more difficult to get what they want.
Or something like that. As allowing any one country or cartel to be up to their elbows in the machinations of the net isn't a good thing.
Eh? The two biggest dictator ships and home to most of the hackers and internet scumbags want to impose government control of the internet.
When they can promise they can stop their countries being filled with spam, hackers and "security" holes then I will care. And Ideally when they can prove they are not horrendously nasty to their own population as this smacks of them keeping control to stop people speaking out?
But Cameron will probably agree as I think he is working on being the third biggest dictator....
When they can promise they can stop their countries being filled with spam, hackers and "security" holes then I will care.
According to Spamhaus:
As of 04 February 2015 the world's worst Spam Haven countries for production and export of spam are:
1 United States Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 2553
2 China Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 1270
3 Russian Federation Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 759
4 Japan Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 561
In other words, globally the US is the largest source of spam, and causes the same number of issues as the rest of the top 4 combined.
As of 04 February 2015 the world's worst Spam Haven countries for production and export of spam are:
1 United States Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 2553
2 China Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 1270
3 Russian Federation Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 759
4 Japan Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 561
Yes, but if you divide by the number of Internet users in those countries, we see something a little more detailed:
1. Ukraine 2.84 e-5
2. United States 9.12 e-6
3. Russian Federation 8.98 e-6
4. Turkey 8.19 e-6
5. United Kingdom 6.03 e-6
6. Japan 5.13 e-6
7. Germany 4.78 e-6
8. Brazil 2.87 e-6
9. China 1.97 e-6
10. India 1.30 e-6
Sources:
http://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/countries/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_Internet_users
So is this document then an attempt to garner support for the IGP another 10 year mandate?
Also could it also be a play to sway the US government, to retain (for the moment) the current (albeit flawed) Internet control structures rather than go with the proposals currently being proposed for Internet oversight and control. As while the US government have effective oversight there are opportunities for other states to make representations through formal channels to the US government. In some respects what Russia and China are asking is simply the public acknowledgement of what the various agencies have been doing for years and hence introduce more visible, regulated and accountable policing of the Internet.
[Aside: Not been able to access the PDF linked to in the arrticle, any one else having problems?]
I don't understand why us technical people haven't created a new network to replace the internet for the original purposes of the internet. Technical discussion, websites for information, not a glorified shopping and advertising and entertainment network. it could use the existing internet as a part of its transport layer... and keep the shopping and spam and advertising and TV on the old regulated internet.
I'm amazed this doesn't seem to have happened.
In order to do that effectively it would require everyone to utilise the same VPN cloud (presumably from a trusted source) who is set up to assign bespoke DNS and private IP allocations (fixed or otherwise).
It can be done, but it would have to start slowly since initially there would be shag all content on it.
I would also recommend that all vpn implementations disable split-tunneling and the VPN cloud have no access to the rest of the internet except potentially via an anonymous forward proxy which also stripped out all unsafe protocols, only allow outbound connections etc. - although I would err on the side of no access at all myself - much safer.
That way, all subscribers to 'FreedomNet' could publish what they like via their own IP and register DNS entries that could even overlap internet ones without problem.
The main issue you have then is how to protect this FreedomNet from it's own subscribers - how would you control who gained access and determine if they have nefarious purposes - be they undercover agents or criminals etc.
It would cost a lot of money and involve a lot of risk and headaches for whomever sets it up - that's probably why it hasn't taken off yet*.
*I'm sure there are already networks out there like this, even ones you haven't heard of.
PS If you want to create a secure network just for trusted parties that you already know - then you could always just set up a VPN between your ADSL routers, or for the super-secure, between PC's (after applying all the OS and app hardening guides you can put your hands on).
Well, they are. The best I've seen so far is I2P. It is essentially an encrypted overlay over the internet (sort of like a global VPN) upon which you can implement servers. They already have servers for IM/file sharing and web. Unlike Tor it is fully encrypted throughout (with public keys), and is not connected to the rest of the internet, nor is it supposed to be (although I'm sure you can make a gateway to do so).
The wiki page explains it better than I can: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I2P
Or look at their official page if you want to get involved: https://geti2p.net/
Thankyou Ogi, that's pretty much exactly the model I was describing with some additional bells and whistles.
However, the risks I mentioned about it's users still stand. It could be a wretched hive of scum and villainy, but without first-hand knowledge I am just guessing - but considering human nature in general I expect there to be a large element of that there.
You're welcome :)
Well, like how the internet was before, the phrase "seek and ye shall find" comes into play. If you dig hard enough, you will find all sorts of scum and villainy, there, or on another free network, or even on the internet.
Part of freedom is the fact that it is free for everyone, even those you disapprove/dislike.
On the other hand, you are in control, you don't have to interact with the wider I2P people for example, you can set up a few nodes, and exchange between friends, sort of like your own private bubble within I2P. Just like you can avoid/block certain IPs on the internet.
Also, as more and more people use it, the %age of the network that is nasty will go down. The "scum and villainy" tend to be early adopters of new secure tech, but they are a minority in the world after all.
I think it might be because it will open up the doors to political manipulation of how the internet is developed (i.e. at a state level rather than a techie level).
If the US did that now, everyone could see it was them trying to take control and everyone would be up in arms.
If all governments had a say, then the US can work behind the scenes to get it to go the way they want and that gives them a chance to cover their tracks/nominate patsy's. etc.
"You would have to look long and hard to find two more unscrupulous governments or more crims"
However, you would only need to cast a glance in the vague direction of Westminster or Washington DC to find ones that are simply equal in those terms.
Don't fool yourself by thinking that stupidity and corruption only exist in the remote and exotic places, AC.
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