[joep]

Originally Posted by FTS

Guess again. These types of rerouting has been happening for the past 4 years that I have seen, and it is not a simple DNS rerouting issue, it is a lot more sophisticated than I had imagined, but we had ways to prevent it when we needed to. Although it appears to be a negative story on the surface, it may not be.

Also, you refer to the Internet as "we share it" with the world, it is the reverse actually; we only shared the IP protocol.

This type of attack is focused at the core routers themselves, and they are literally spread all over the world, including China, and anyone else who has partnered with a telco and wants to communicate on the "Global Internet". Since the articles don't give too many details, one guess as to what happened might be this: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/200...vealed-the-in/ Here the common routing protocol is exlpoited by abusing the inherit trust in it's design.

True the technology was shared with all, but today the mess of networks is commonly referred too as a single "Internet", but its also true this is an over simplification. Tony's referred to one example above in which the US DOD has its own network.

Originally Posted by Landjet

I don't have any of my banking online but I do shop online. I thought that sites that have https in front of them are secure sites. Is this not true? Or are you saying that nothing online is secure?

HTTS is only one link in a chain of custody which handles your information including your account info and CC's. HTTPS is general terms is software encryption to protect your transmission from your desktop to the website your transacting with. In theory and largely in practice too, it protects you from the sort of attack OldTee is writing about. Given enough time, resources, and the will to do so, someone who listened in and saved a copy of your traffic could crack the encryption and see your information BUT why would they go to the effort?

There’s a high cost of computing, potentially 1000's man hours to Gobogillians of hrs to do what? Steal your bank account and identity? Now if your the NSA its different stakes and possibly worth the time and effort. (Incidentally guess who’s got the biggest new supercomputer on the block? http://www.itp.net/582827-china-tops-supercomputer-list) I’m just saying

The real risks come into play when your computer hacked by day-today things such as by viruses/malware/evil websites which steal your cookies, your address book, or log your keystrokes. These things are much more likely to occur if you or your family has unsafe computing habits. On the other end you've got Company X or a poor hosting provider with inept employees who ignore security procedures, fail to update software, accidentally send mass emails to everyone, get hacked themselves, etc...

Originally Posted by savowood

Locks keep honest people honest.

What he said, all of it.