Discussion Is it possible for a terrorist organization to fully shut down the internet?

[AngryUbermensch]

lets imagine that a terrorist organization of people who deeply hate internet is formed. This organization contains around 20 people. The organization puts itself a goal to completely shut down the internet in entire world. The question is - can they physically do it without getting caught?

Ive read that the internet works thanks to really big amount of underwater internet cabels. By destroying one cable, the internet wont be fully shut down, but idk how many cables you have to destroy to shut it down fully.

There are online maps of all the internet cables, so the organization will know where are the cables located approximately, but the problem is how to find the exact location of the underwater cable, when you are near this area on your ship. Do you need some scanner or what?

I also have no idea how to actually destroy them. Those cables are in thick metal protection. Do you need to dive underwater and use a saw to destroy them, but in this case wont you be killed by electricity? Or you can use your ship's anchor?

What do you think? Can a terrorist organization of 20 people actually destroy the internet? If it actually happens, how long will it take to restore it?

 

[Bianor]

I doubt it

 

[CopingForBrutality]

No way, the internet is super decentralised, 20 people can't get all of that and shut it down.

Damaging cables will only temporarily disrupt communications and they can be easily replaced in a matter of time especially as there's only 20 people.

 

[AngryUbermensch]

No way, the internet is super decentralised, 20 people can't get all of that and shut it down.

Damaging cables will only temporarily disrupt communications and they can be easily replaced in a matter of time especially as there's only 20 people.

How many people are needed to destroy all the cables in a short time period? 50? 100?

 

[Corvus]

How to get put on a federal watchlist

 

[CopingForBrutality]

How many people are needed to destroy all the cables in a short time period? 50? 100?

Even if you destroy all the cables, they could reroute it using satellite communications as an alternative, the internet will still be running albeit at a compromised bandwidth and latency

 

[ordinaryotaku]

The Internet isn't one central unit so I'd doubt it.

 

[ceo_greypill_labs]

lets imagine that a terrorist organization of people who deeply hate internet is formed. This organization contains around 20 people. The organization puts itself a goal to completely shut down the internet in entire world. The question is - can they physically do it without getting caught?

Ive read that the internet works thanks to really big amount of underwater internet cabels. By destroying one cable, the internet wont be fully shut down, but idk how many cables you have to destroy to shut it down fully.

There are online maps of all the internet cables, so the organization will know where are the cables located approximately, but the problem is how to find the exact location of the underwater cable, when you are near this area on your ship. Do you need some scanner or what?

I also have no idea how to actually destroy them. Those cables are in thick metal protection. Do you need to dive underwater and use a saw to destroy them, but in this case wont you be killed by electricity? Or you can use your ship's anchor?

What do you think? Can a terrorist organization of 20 people actually destroy the internet? If it actually happens, how long will it take to restore it?

Even the actual US government can't stop Russians and Iranians and Chinese people from being online. The reason is that there is no way to remotely kill-switch routers, and hard drives, and Windows bootup screens, on the other side of the planet. Also the poor shithole countries are mostly using pirated copies of like Windows Vista or whatever; they don't get OS updates.

That's true for consumer hardware. No killswitch controlled from the other side of the world. And it's true for the infrastructure that ISPs and hosting providers use. Domain names with .ru endings don't need Uncle Sam's permission to resolve. And even .com domains can't easily be prevented from resolving in Russia, because Russian ISPs have cached copies of those DNS records.

 

[Julaybib]

no

How to get put on a federal watchlist