Death of the Internet - UBM [David Eells]

Turning off the DNS or "Domain Name Servers" will not be the method that Internet access will be restricted or eliminated. Most companies of any size now use proxy servers for Internet access. In the corporate world today, most companies configure all Internet access to flow through servers (proxy) so that each request can be inspected, logged and filtered against an allowable list of Internet sites. Of course, limiting the liability to a company should an individual use the company resources for illegal or immoral purposes is one benefit of the technology, as well as preventing sites that contain spyware, malware, viruses, etc., but it also allows a company to track which sites a user goes to and how much time they spend surfing, rather than working, for example. We experienced an individual who sent a bomb threat at a company that he worked for and he was tracked and arrested by the information provided by the proxy server. So that technology is very mature, stable and widely used.

I'll spare you all the details but the Internet is a tiered system where the tier one providers provide the backbone (think of it as the large drain pipes that aggregate water from all the individual pipes). We typically buy our Internet access from a tier two or tier three provider and they buy/connect to the tier one providers. These are called ISPs or Internet service providers. They will be responsible for the filtering and proxy of Internet traffic (believe me, that's already happening). ISPs could be required legally to shut down their routes (delivery of Internet traffic to the backbone) which is quite easily done in a few milliseconds. So then, if your ISP has shut down their routes to the tier one backbone, it doesn't matter if you know the IP address or not, your request will not make it to the destination because there will be no route to get there.

But here's the real point. From the article: "If the plans go ahead, every Internet user will be given a unique ID code and all their data will be stored in one place. Government agencies such as the police and security services will have access to the data, should they request it, with respect to criminal or terrorist investigations."

I've seen this before in other articles; some have mentioned requiring an "Internet driver's license". The UN is already well down the road with their plans to do this and Internet terrorism via hacking has really been hyped lately. That's one way to eliminate anything contrary to the government.

God can do anything He wants, so I'm not sending this to put fear into anybody.

Rather, I would recommend to folks that they take advantage while they can to download the materials from the site so that they can distribute them via CDs, DVDs, and MP3 players, should their access to the Internet be restricted or eliminated.