The Internet interprets the USA as damage and routes around it

Davey Winder
Tuesday, 02 September 2008 20:15

Business IT - Networking

There are few developed countries around the planet which are not, in some way or another, dependant upon the Internet these days. There are even fewer who do not appreciate that a dependence on other countries to deliver their Internet traffic is Not A Good Thing.

Some consider it to be common knowledge that "US intelligence agencies frequently tap into internet traffic coming through the US from elsewhere."

Although this might sound like paranoia talking, the argument does have legs. In 2006 the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Michael V. Hayden, went on record before a Senate Judiciary Committee to warn about the dangers of countries bypassing the US when it comes to Internet data routing.

“Because of the nature of global telecommunications, we are playing with a tremendous home-field advantage, and we need to exploit that edge. We also need to protect that edge, and we need to protect those who provide it to us" Hayden said.

The New York Times reports that government officials have acknowledged the importance of traffic "passing through the switching equipment of companies based in the United States" has proved "a distinct advantage for American intelligence agencies."

Now it seems that the spying has come back to bite the US firmly on the ass. That and the economic importance of developing ones own Internet infrastructure which has not been lost on nations around the world.

One research scientist sums it up nicely when saying “You wouldn’t want someone owning your roads either.”

And so we have a situation where the amount of the world's Internet traffic carried through the US has dropped to around 25 percent today, compared to around 70 percent ten years ago.

India and China are both investing heavily in next-generation Internet technology, and nations like Japan are keen to exploit this in order to cut the US out of the routing loop altogether.

What America will need to come to terms with over the next ten years is that the rest of the world has not only caught up with them in terms of Internet technology, but is running at such a pace that sheer momentum will drive it right past them real soon now...