[42871] in North American Network Operators' Group
RE: Points of Failure (was Re: National infrastructure asset)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Vivien M.)
Mon Sep 24 20:38:48 2001
From: "Vivien M." <vivienm@dyndns.org>
To: <nanog@merit.edu>
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 20:38:49 -0400
Message-ID: <NDBBKECCEHKIHGIMJECAGEBCCLAA.vivienm@dyndns.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
In-Reply-To: <KNEDLIFDCBNLILNDBEMDEEBHELAA.trm3@nuvox.net>
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu]On Behalf Of
> Timothy R. McKee
> Sent: September 24, 2001 8:29 PM
> To: nanog@merit.edu
> Subject: RE: Points of Failure (was Re: National infrastructure asset)
> Importance: High
>=20
>=20
> I know it's difficult to refrain from comment, but let's try to =
remember
> that the bad guys read this list too. While they may not have=20
> the knowledge
> of critical communication infrastructure points, they can=20
> certainly find and
> target them if we point them in the right direction.
> This pertains not only to our side of the ponds, but to overseas as =
well.
> We all know where the 'soft targets' of our infrastructures are =
located -
> let's keep it to ourselves or, at the very least, within small private
> discussion groups where everyone knows everyone and not on the=20
> public list.
Why would security by obscurity work in this case?
Any terrorist with a quarter of a clue can find out the addresses of =
enough critical buildings to cause a huge disaster in about 30 minutes =
(*hint* Find sites for providers that have hardware coloed in major =
buildings and that list the addresses of these POPs. No names will be =
provided, but I have at least one in my mind. Repeat this process with =
some major peering points, a listing of which is quite easy to find).
I might add that it's much easier to find this out than it is to crash =
some airplanes into prominent US buildings; I doubt a 30 minute Google =
search would tell you how to pilot airplanes, but perhaps I'm just a =
little naive.
Vivien
--=20
Vivien M.
vivienm@dyndns.org
Assistant System Administrator
Dynamic DNS Network Services
http://www.dyndns.org/
