Friday, February 01, 2008

Occam's Razor

I don't think it's crazy to say that a more parsimonious explanation for Iran nearly dropping off the face of the internet

Router
Location
Current Index
Response Time (ms)
Packet Loss (%)
misschaos.chaos-studio.com
China (Shanghai)
81
181
0
gsrmum.vsnl.net.in
India (Mumbai)
72
270
0
core-mgl.cbn.net.id
Indonesia (Mangole)
79
205
0
router1.iust.ac.ir
Iran (Tehran)
0
0
100
cs1mr1.comsourceone.com
Japan (Tokyo)
85
146
0
gateway.ix.singtel.com
Singapore
68
217
12
tpnoc1-osr-transit.ix.giga.net.tw
Taiwan
74
149
12


is that we're installing the hardware and software to allow us to read every packet going in and out of south-west Asia, and we don't want them to know it.

(Chart from Internettrafficreport.com, story courtesy of Slashdot)

Related: New submarine can tap fiber-optic cables (hat-tip AC)
Related: Hackers cut cities' power (hat-tip Sharpr)
Must read: Don't Forget by Mike Tanji