Situational Awareness – The Day the Internet Might Lose its Way (in July)

In July, the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) plans an unannounced thirty minute test of its Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI). RPKI is a cryptographic framework designed to secure the Internet’s routing infrastructure to protect against route hijacks and leaks, primarily for the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). While RPKI is not something a typical organization would be concerned about, a failure of the system could result in global network disruptions and outages as internet traffic temporarily loses its way across the world wide routers and switches that keep packets moving in an orderly fashion. A recent example of this failure occurred in April when a major BGP leak disrupted thousands of networks globally, thus prompting the need to strengthen BGP route security. The unannounced test does seem a bit ironic for a protocol (BGP) that is based on the “announcement” of valid routes to maintain continuity. Nonetheless, if users complain about not being able to get to websites or send email, or remote systems stop communicating one or two days in July, keep this in mind. It’s probably not a global attack, but BGP trying to relearn how to navigate the information super highway. For more, visit BleepingComputer.