Suitcase Nuke 7.0
Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 10:29 pmThe New York Times stirred up a huge amount of excitement about the so-called "Internet in a suitcase." The idea is that a relatively small amount of equipment could be parachuted (either literally or figuratively) into a region where one force is suppressing the ability of the general public to communicate using the Net. This is our newest tool for global information sharing.
It's very James Bond sounding, which is why it's caught people's imagination, and it's very timely with the events in Libya, Egypt, and Syria--which has become the latest nation to try to strangle communications to quell a popular uprising. But while James Bond's Q-Division gadgets were no more than special effects, the Net in a suitcase uses some very interesting tech.
The Net was actually born from some Cold War thinking in DARPA about how to protect digital assets and communications from attack--its distributed design is supposed to make the whole computer-to-computer network survivable even if one link or several is severed in some kind of attack. But as we've learned over the last several months, if you've got access to important critical points in the network, like the ISPs that channel data into a nation via just a few key pinch points (like the main international data cables) then you can shut off the network, or at least parts of it that are important to you. That's because the Net uses central "hubs" to share data out to "spokes," and, to stretch the metaphor a little, if you take out the hub then you disable the entire wheel.
The Internet in a suitcase uses an entirely different communications method--the mesh. In this model, the network is actually all about numerous interlinks between devices, avoiding over-reliance on hubs which can be weak points. Think of it like this--your smartphone has a Wi-Fi link, which can connect to a router, which is hooked to wired broadband Net in its normal usage. But if it's instead connected to a computer, which is also connected to another computer, plus a router, a smartphone, and a feature phone that has a 3G wireless connection, the entire array is spread out over more and different technologies and connection types. Squashing this type of network is much harder. It's a true peer-to-peer solution.
CAUTION;
FOR EXPORT ONLY
NO CONTINENTAL US SALES
interested parties please contact
your local FBI field office
It's very James Bond sounding, which is why it's caught people's imagination, and it's very timely with the events in Libya, Egypt, and Syria--which has become the latest nation to try to strangle communications to quell a popular uprising. But while James Bond's Q-Division gadgets were no more than special effects, the Net in a suitcase uses some very interesting tech.
The Net was actually born from some Cold War thinking in DARPA about how to protect digital assets and communications from attack--its distributed design is supposed to make the whole computer-to-computer network survivable even if one link or several is severed in some kind of attack. But as we've learned over the last several months, if you've got access to important critical points in the network, like the ISPs that channel data into a nation via just a few key pinch points (like the main international data cables) then you can shut off the network, or at least parts of it that are important to you. That's because the Net uses central "hubs" to share data out to "spokes," and, to stretch the metaphor a little, if you take out the hub then you disable the entire wheel.
The Internet in a suitcase uses an entirely different communications method--the mesh. In this model, the network is actually all about numerous interlinks between devices, avoiding over-reliance on hubs which can be weak points. Think of it like this--your smartphone has a Wi-Fi link, which can connect to a router, which is hooked to wired broadband Net in its normal usage. But if it's instead connected to a computer, which is also connected to another computer, plus a router, a smartphone, and a feature phone that has a 3G wireless connection, the entire array is spread out over more and different technologies and connection types. Squashing this type of network is much harder. It's a true peer-to-peer solution.
CAUTION;
FOR EXPORT ONLY
NO CONTINENTAL US SALES
interested parties please contact
your local FBI field office