nanog mailing list archives
Re: Points of Failure (was Re: National infrastructure asset)
From: "Travis Pugh" <tdp () discombobulated net>
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 18:04:44 -0400
From: "George William Herbert" <gherbert () retro com> Subject: Re: Points of Failure (was Re: National infrastructure asset)
Part of the insidiousness of all this is that currently there is insufficient information available to a telco line end user to properly plan for that sort of loss.
I was able to procure extremely detailed route information from multiple CLECs and Verizon in the Boston area when researching both dark fiber and SONET purchases, up to and including street-level maps. Long-haul providers also are able to provide detailed route information, if you're willing to ask -- the key is to be an educated buyer.
On top of that, none of these facilities are sufficiently hardened. What takes a backhoe operator ten minutes by accident would be no more than an hours work by hand of a sufficiently educated attacker.
(snip)
Longer term, we all need to think about multi-level hardening of
facilities
and connectivity to avoid "cheap kills" due to accident or malicious
attack. Before I would jump to harden all telecom and colo facilities to physical attack or mishap, I'd at least examine whether it was cheaper and easier to design my network assuming that any given facility can / will go away, either short- or long-term. -travis
Current thread:
- Re: Points of Failure (was Re: National infrastructure asset) Dickson, Brian (Sep 24)
- NATURE: Error and attack tolerance of complex networks Anthony Townsend (Sep 24)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: Points of Failure (was Re: National infrastructure asset) Roeland Meyer (Sep 24)
- Re: Points of Failure (was Re: National infrastructure asset) George William Herbert (Sep 25)
- Re: Points of Failure (was Re: National infrastructure asset) Travis Pugh (Sep 25)
- Re: Points of Failure (was Re: National infrastructure asset) Sean Donelan (Sep 25)
- Re: Points of Failure (was Re: National infrastructure asset) Travis Pugh (Sep 25)
- Re: Points of Failure (was Re: National infrastructure asset) Travis Pugh (Sep 25)
- RE: Points of Failure (was Re: National infrastructure asset) Roeland Meyer (Sep 25)
- Re: Points of Failure (was Re: National infrastructure asset) George William Herbert (Sep 25)