Search my posts and you'll find me commenting on the topic of IT Security in a few places here. Its not a hobby for me as its my job.
The type of attack your referring too has been more than theoretical for years, and in fact has happened by mistake on a few occasions. The core Internet routers and their software (protocols) are designed to automatically reroute traffic via any available links based on perceived "cost" i.e. bandwidth and proximity. Imagine a spider's web of a telephone lines. The call may take any path through the web between two points. The idea is such that if any one strand goes down (nuked) the rest of the web will keep transmitting. This is how the Internet was intended and in fact it functions great in this capacity.
The problem today is that we've shared this new "tool" with all our allies, and all our enemies. We're all on the same web, same internet, The U.S. government has undoubtedly leveraged this same tactic to reroute information through keep choke points for inspection and testing as well.
Any organization with a network must use routers and firewalls and protect your networks from the rest of it Internet. You route all traffic to certain spots to contain entry and egress. After your traffic leaves your front door router it may in fact be flowing through China, or Arlington, or both on its way to Landover, MD.
When the Internet was created I don't think they envisioned how it was going to be used as it is today. There are whole corporations who's livelihood rest on the fact that they have bandwidth today, and security everyday. There are Federal & state agencies who do essential day-to-day business over the Internet. And more and more kinds of things are added constantly.
Think about that for one minute.
This dorkiphus.net message may have came to you via a 10 mile route, or 26,000 mile route and across the oceans before reaching your desktop!
-We knew carrier pigeons might get caught, so they were always released away from the enemy lines.
-We knew enigma machines would work so long as the keys remained a closely guarded secret.
-We knew your little brother/sister was able to listen in on the cups and string in between forts.
-We know that all types of encryption are eventually broken when given enough resources, time, and will power to do so.
Nothing has changed here folks. Only our tools, our spear points are a little more shiny today.
If you want to keep something confidential DON'T POST IT ONLINE. Maybe no one will care or notice, or bother with it, BUT ITS NOT IMPOSSIBLE either. Don't bank online.
In fact consider not using the machine in front of you for personally sensitive information such as taxes, your bank account info, companies spreadsheets etc.. unless you understand and can accept the risk that the overly complex machine in front of you may be one day under some else's control.
Now with that all said, let me explain why the sky isn't falling...
I consider my attitude to be "Professionally Paranoid" which means I try to keep a critical eye out to find troubles where ever I can on the job. I am not advocating here for everyone to stop using the Internet, but I do caution you to think twice before shopping online. Many of you are good to excellent mechanics who understand the inner workings of cars to a level I'll likely never have time to achieve. But this means you understand very well and know how to mitigate the weaknesses and design flaws of cars which could have been built better or designed a tad smarter. The Internet is the same way, only its just coming out of its infancy as a technology and as an industry. Cars have evolved and improved since the Model-T and so will the Internet. Until then it works to get your information from here to there just fine on most days. Someday it will do it more perfectly, and possibly a little more securely too even if we keep the paper cups & string tied to the enemy's front gate.
