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Seven smartcards to rule us all as internet 'keys' handed out across the globe |
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Microsolve is interested in this concept, we believe it is a great step forward and we will be following the progress of this event. “It’s a scenario that doesn't bear thinking about - what happens if the internet breaks? Fans of The IT Crowd will recall the moment when Jen drops "the internet", a black box given to her as a prank by her colleagues to present at a management show-and-tell. Chaos ensues and the internet is trampled in the rush to prepare for the Apocalypse. But really, is the internet so fragile that it can be switched on and off at will? Yes, apparently. The BBC is reporting the existence of seven individuals who were recently given the "keys" to the internet. If it breaks, such as in the event of a global cyber attack, at least five of these seven people will be required to take their keys - actually smartcards - to a base in the US to boot it all up again. And they'll have to come from all over the world, with each guardian hailing from a different country. Represented are the United States, Trinidad and Tobago, China, the UK, Canada and the Czech Republic - even Burkina Faso gets one. Explaining why and how these seven people can save our digital lives is a bit tedious and involves lots of acronyms. Suffice to say that the internet is joined together by a security scheme known as the Domain Name System Security, which protects the integrity of website addresses and makes sure you get the right one when you type it in and hit the return key. If the entire internet looks like it might be under cyber attack on a global scale, the scheme will cut the connections from all the major servers and retreat back into a kind of digital panic room. And it won't come out until the cyber guardians enter their smartcards together. The BBC actually tracked the UK's representative, Paul Kane, down for a chat about what it feels like to be responsible for kickstarting the machine that runs the modern world. Described simply as an "entrepreneur", Mr Kane is based at the University of Bath and can now add the title of Trusted Community Representative to his CV. He told the BBC he was "honoured and excited to be recognised for past achievements and current contributions to global internet security". Mr Kane's not exactly being circumspect about his enormous new responsibility - he also spoke to New Scientist, telling them he'll be holding the smartcard "in a tamper-proof bag in a secure deposit box". The US will be represented by security researcher Dan Kaminsky, famous for finding a fatal flaw in the DNS protocol then having his personal email hacked and published by Zero for 0wned hackers. Now the search is on for the other five, who so far have been smart enough to keep their mouths shut - if only because they don't want to be characters in the next Dan Brown novel.” Source: http://www.news.com.au/technology/seven-smartcards-to-rule-us-all-as-internet-keys-handed-out-across-the-globe/story-e6frfro0-1225898260889 |