Government should protect the Net
Bob Alberti has issued the challenge, but will the IT community respond? Why are there only 13 root servers? Why aren't access ISPs (Internet service providers) forced to implement egress filtering to prevent spoofed IP addresses? The list goes on and on. We have the technical means to solve many of these problems, but because the oligopoly that controls the root servers, the peering points and the Tier 1 backbones refuses to improve the infrastructure, they may be putting the Internet at risk--and the nation's economy. While I do not advocate a government that interferes, perhaps this is an exception.
This should be a wake-up call. If I worked at the FBI or the White House, I would be quick to point out that this attack could very well be from some terrorist group or foreign country. It perhaps was a simple probe of what the effect would be and the response that would be taken. As potentially serious as this attack was, I would hesitate to suspect some teenager looking for kicks. We ignored the warnings signs that led to Sept. 11. Are we so naive as to ignore this warning as well?
Russ Johnson
Kansas City, Mo.