Internet Blackouts

Today is an awesome day! I drove back from KL to Kuala Kangsar!!!! =) Specifically, with my parents and sisters in and actually drove from Rawang to Tapah (*sigh). The traffic was not heavy at all and it was nice driving on the highway, with the speed of around 100 - 120 km/h. ^^ My daddy and mummy kept on warning me to drive slowly as if they were riding corkscrew in Genting Highlands. Woo hoo!!! HAHA!! Seat belt, ready! Hands on the hand rest, ready! Vroom! Then the adrenaline pumped to the whole body, making the heart beat as fast as it could. HAHA!!! My hands were gripped to the steering and I dared not even move a single finger, nor I lost my concentration. It was THRILLING! =)

Well, I am always out of topic. Today after reaching home, I faster flipped through "The Economist - Print me a Stradivarius" issue for any interesting article. Alas, I found a not-so-interesting article. (*so contradicting ^_^)

On January 25th, American senators reintroduced a bill granting the president emergency powers to shut down parts of the nation's Internet as a defence against cyber-attack. Three days later Egypt's embattled autocrats took their country offline. The five-days shutdown of Egypt's Internet and its mobile-phone network has given opponents of the "kill switch" in America and elsewhere some powerful arguments. [1]

Let's come back to the background story on the shutdown of Internet and mobile phone network in Egypt. The news of the Internet outage came minutes after the Associated Press published a video of an Egyptian protester being shot. [2] This is a sad story as it reflects the restriction of speech and expression in the country. It is well shown that the Internet is used as a political tool, to the benefits of the politicians, which, is not good to the Egyptians and perhaps, to anyone who stay on Earth. Internet outage in Egypt had caused a vast negative impact on economics and social. A much cited slogan of late on the web is:

"If your government shuts down your Internet, it's time to shut down your government". 

HAHA!!! It is actually very true. Internet is a global communication tools that fundamentally supports opportunity, empowerment, knowledge, growth and freedom. These values should not be taken away by the individuals as they are the basic human rights that everyone should has. Imagine you were taken away your freedom of speech and expression, there will be no Facebook, no Twitter, no Friendster, no BLOGSPOT, no SWEET TALK with my HONEY? OMGG, it will be a chaos in my life. =S

Such regimes are unlikely to take heart from Egypt's experience. The Internet and mobile crackdown did not derail the protests, but providing them a blazing platform, enable them to protest with FIRE!~

 

Almost every corner of the world is fascinated by the efficiency of the Egyptian government to shut down the Internet server. The "kill switch" which I mentioned just now, is hugely complex and expensive to build and run. It is kind of like a switch which can kill off all the Internet connection and mobile network, with just your finger to switch off the switch. If it happened in Malaysia, I think almost everyone will shoot the government down for doing so and perhaps, ask the Internet provider for refund. I can imagine that within one day, if every Maxis, Digi, Celcom, TM, P1 and YES customers asked for RM 10 refund, all this telecommunication companies will go bankrupt in no time.

However, this "kill switch" should be implemented in countries, which can be used to face the threat of hackers. Can you imagine, if hackers took control of nuclear facilities, or were about to open the dam, the "kill switch" will come in great use. It is a absolute defence against cyber-attack. No Internet, no hacker! HAHA~ (Come out with my new slogan) ^^

(P/S: It needs quite a lot of background before I can write this review. Phew~)

Addition:
I feel that the best way to curb cyber attack is not blocking the Internet but find another stronger way to kill off all the cyber attacks. "Kill switch" may be a wise choice to block the cyber attacks temporarily but not forever. The attack will surely resume once the Internet is restarted.

References:
http://www.economist.com/node/18112043

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/27/egypt-internet-goes-down-_n_815156.html

http://isoc.org/wp/newsletter/?p=3100