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The Virtual Apocalypse
The Virtual Apocalypse
The Virtual Apocalypse
Abstract
The spectacular development of the internet gave birth, ever since its inception, to the apparition of
hackers. The more the internet network expands and perfects, the more ingenious the methods hackers use
become. Theres a silent and continuous struggle between information security agencies and anonymous
groups of cyber terrorists. Aside from solar flares, the cyber war is a real threat to the security of our
planet. At this rate, a nation could be economically and military affected, its road, marine and aerial
infrastructure could be paralyzed, and the electricity system could fall. Governments lead a continuous
struggle against these threats and allocate huge amounts of money in order to ensure information security,
but the fight is far from over, because theres always room for increasingly more sophisticated cyber
attacks, which causes the specialists to be prepared at all times.
that in 2013 the earth will be struck by powerful magnetic radiations that will reach an
unprecedented level.
These radiations that are emanated by the
solar flares could affect a major part of the
population of Earth, disrupting national electricity networks that may overheat, navigation
equipment and major satellites would damage, so on.
Unfortunately this scenario can happen,We know it is coming but we dont
know how bad it is going to be, declared dr.
Richard Fisher in an interview with The Daily
Telegraph, also adding: It (solar flare A/N)
will disrupt communication devices such as
satellites and car navigation, air travel, the
banking system, our computers, everything
that is electronic. It will cause major problems
for the world.
Destruction of terrestrial and underwater
cables represents another threat which concerns the global network of the internet.
PC Magazine recently brought into discussion the old iron collectors incident that occurred in march 2012 when an old lady from
Georgia managed to leave Armenia without
internet for more than 12 hours when she
sliced through a fiber optic cable while looking for scrap metal.
Although cable infrastructure is very
broadened, from the trans-oceanic cables up
to the satellites, the destruction of the internet
could also occur from here.
But you can not only talk of incidents but
also attempts of some individuals to prove
that they can destroy the entire global network of the internet.
At the beginning of 2012, Sam Biddle from
Gizmodo suggested that he can destroy the internet through cable cutting, thus eliminating
the root servers and destroying all the data
centers. In support of his intention he stated:
The Internet is a network of networks. The
laptops in your house, the desktops in your
office, a server farm in Moscow-theyre all
wrangled together by these byzantine cable
connections. Kill the connections, and the networks cant speak across oceans. The Internet
Presumptive threats
This paper aims to approach a bold subject,
namely to do a relevant and rational analysis
about the consequences of the possible disappearance of the internet.
I will not address this topic from the angle
of a science fiction movie, but by starting from
the reality of the digital era that has revolutionized all the areas of our life, which makes
me ask myself: How will mankind be in the
post digital era?
Given that we are so addicted to the internet, as we do so many things online every
day, paying our bills, socializing with friends,
watching movies, music videos, making online shopping, performing research activities
and so on, how could we live without it?
The causes that may trigger the end of the
internet
The cyber war can sink the planet in total darkness. Eugene Kaspersky the founder
of the Kaspersky Lab, emphasizes in an interview with the BBC that the greatest threat
to mankind is the cyber war, bringing in discussion the effects of the Stuxnet worm attack
on the iranian nuclear plants. If these attacks
reach their target, mankind will be thrown in
the era before electricity (about 200 years ago).
Only this aspect and is enough to terrify
us and to unleash a disaster on the planet
in all the areas. A power outage that affects
only one third of the mankind would generate
an indescribable chaos. A simple exercise of
imagination puts us in a fearful reality.
Magnetic storms.
Another imminent
threat to mankind are the magnetic storms,
and on this issue Richard Fisher, head of
NASAs Heliophysics Division, warned us
2
is instantly fractured.
If just one of these scenarios would come
true, mankind would be thrown into chaos,
and generalized panic would be hard to manage and would produce millions of victims.
Concrete countermeasures
At the same time governments could be
exceeded in taking some immediate actions,
given that this will be primarily an institutionalized crisis in which there will be no communication.
To start with, terrified people will realize
that they will no longer be able to procure
food, having unusable cash cards, they wont
be able to move around with public transport,
health system would be in collapse, a generalized turmoil would lead to unpredictable
reactions from groups of panicked individuals.
In time things would return to normality
but what will the consequences be? Material
and human costs would be huge and mankind
would suffer a catastrophic involution.
But all of these nightmare scenes can be
prevented.
IT expert Dewayne Hendricks, known as
the Broadband Cowboy said that The first
thing you need to know about the Internet,
is that there is no such thing as the Internet. The Internet is merely a series of highly
distributed packet switchers. People tend to
think its this one thing - and its not - its
important to get this idea across that its thousands of independently owned and operated
networks - networks that are tied together
by physical connections that use a common
protocol. The Internet works like the Borg
Collective of Star Trek - its basically a kind of
hive mind. Its like trying to defeat the Borg a system thats massively distributed, decentralized, and redundant.
Not even a massive electromagnetic pulse
(EMP) would be able to completely destroy
the internet because, says the same specialist,
The Internet is not just technology, its people - you can trust people, theyre resilient,
because The only way to bring down the In-
Ending notes
Still, the internet network continues to expand, becoming ubiquitous in all areas of human activity, but at the same time increasingly
more complex computer attacks continue to
develop, increasing in direct proportion to the
expansion of the internet.
At this rate cyber-terrorism can become a
more serious threat, being situated in the 10
4
//io9.com/5944558/could-someone-reallydestroy-the-whole-internet.
possible events that could lead to the extinction of the entire human race.
Paraphrasing Andre Malraux, I believe
that the 21st century will either be cybernetic or it will not be at all.
//www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383278,
00.asp.
References
1. AFP article (Sep. 2007); http://afp.google.com/
article/ALeqM5izkiUz-8u1rsvfDH29rJEsd17clw.
worldnews/northamerica/usa/7691500/Cyberattack-could-fell-US-within-15-minutes.
html.
//news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57442473-83/
massive-targeted-cyber-attack-in-middleeast-uncovered/.
3. Gizmodo article by Sam Biddle on How to destroy the internet (May 2012); http://gizmodo.
com/5912383/how-to-destroy-the-internet.
science/space/7819201/Nasa-warns-solarflares-from-huge-space-storm-will-causedevastation.html.