[138804] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: US .mil blocking in Japan
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jeffrey Lyon)
Wed Mar 16 15:50:56 2011
In-Reply-To: <20110316184811.GB59111@eagle.aitken.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:50:08 -0400
From: Jeffrey Lyon <jeffrey.lyon@blacklotus.net>
To: Jeff Aitken <jaitken@aitken.com>
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 2:48 PM, Jeff Aitken <jaitken@aitken.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 09:14:13AM -0700, andrew.wallace wrote:
>> This isn't the rhetoric of a super power, more like one of a university
>> campus. [...] It strikes me straight away as amateurish to be blocking
>> web sites in able to have enough bandwidth for operational purposes.
>
> On the contrary, it's entirely plausible that US forces assisting with th=
e
> recovery are (1) using more communications resources than normal, and (2)
> relying on infrastructure that's operating in a degraded state due to
> fiber or power issues. =A0If so, it's entirely reasonable to put limits o=
n
> bandwidth-hungry but non-essential applications as a precautionary measur=
e.
>
> Here's an excerpt from http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20110314_9111.ph=
p?oref=3Dtopnews:
>
> =A0 =A0Military units operating in Japan face bandwidth shortages and
> =A0 =A0network limitations that inhibit communications and command and
> =A0 =A0control, Defense sources told Nextgov. Misawa Air Base, located on=
the
> =A0 =A0northeast tip of Honshu, warned its personnel on a blog post Frida=
y
> =A0 =A0that the Defense Switched Network, which handles voice calls, was =
in
> =A0 =A0backup mode and had only limited capacity, a fact confirmed by a
> =A0 =A0Pentagon source Monday.
>
> =A0 =A0The blog post added, "We have a number of connectivity issues.
> =A0 =A0Internet has been up and down due to our connections through other
> =A0 =A0places in Japan. For example, Yokota [Air Base] and several other
> =A0 =A0locations are having issues because we all have power and connecti=
vity
> =A0 =A0issues right now."
>
> =A0 =A0The Pentagon also took the extraordinary step of blocking access t=
o a
> =A0 =A0range of commercial websites to ensure that its networks have enou=
gh
> =A0 =A0bandwidth to support mission-essential communications, Nextgov
> =A0 =A0learned. This move, a military source told Nextgov, possibly indic=
ates
> =A0 =A0one or more undersea cables used by military networks were damaged=
by
> =A0 =A0the earthquake.
>
>
> --Jeff
>
>
>
Here's the problem with the logic of blocking all of the most popular
sites; they tried this from time to time in Afghanistan on the
NIPRnet. Whenever someone was unable to get to YouTube, Facebook, etc.
they, still bored and/or wasting time, simply went to some other web
site which also wasted equally as much bandwidth.
--=20
Jeffrey Lyon, Leadership Team
jeffrey.lyon@blacklotus.net | http://www.blacklotus.net
Black Lotus Communications - AS32421
First and Leading in DDoS Protection Solutions
