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Could the U.S. shut down the internet?

(CNN) -- It seemed so easy for Egypt. Just order a shutdown of the country's internet connections and -- bam -- it happens.

But is such an authoritarian action transferable? Could the U.S. government shut down American internet connections? And is it possible for the global internet to be toppled?

Technically, yes, internet experts said Wednesday, shortly after Egypt's government restored internet connections there as violent political protests continued. But it's highly unlikely.

"Could you break the internet? Yeah. Can you shut it down? No. Shutting down the entire internet would be pretty much impossible at this point," said Jim Cowie, co-founder of Renesys, an worldwide internet tracker. Cowie spoke of the internet as if it were a giant, adaptable worm.

"The funny thing about the internet is even if you break it in half, the two halves will function as [separate] internets," he said. More...

02-03-2011 18:56

WikiLeaks' resilience shows strength of Internet-age lifelines

By Joby Warrick and Rob Pegoraro Thursday, December 9, 2010

Over the past several days, the anti-secrecy Web site WikiLeaks has been hit with a series of blows that have seemed to threaten its survival. Its primary Web address was deactivated, its PayPal account was frozen, and its Internet server gave it the boot.

The result: WikiLeaks is now stronger than ever, at least as measured by its ability to publish online.

Blocked from using one Internet host, WikiLeaks simply jumped to another. Meanwhile, the number of "mirror" Web sites - effectively clones of WikiLeaks' main contents pages - grew from a few dozen last week to 200 by Sunday. By early Wednesday, the number of such sites surpassed 1,000. More...

12-15-2010 17:38

Russian man accounted for a third of global spam: FBI

(Reuters) - A 23-year-old Russian operated a huge network of infected computers that sent billions of spam e-mails marketing counterfeit goods and accounted for a third of global spam, the FBI said.

An affidavit written by an FBI cyber crimes expert released this week outlined an international scheme run by Russian native Oleg Nikolaenko that earned him millions of dollars from sellers of fake Rolex watches and "male enhancement drugs" before it was shut down.

Nikolaenko, 23, was arrested at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas in early November, where he was attending a car show, and charged with one count of violating the federal CAN-SPAM Act, which is punishable by up to five years in prison. More...

12-03-2010 18:08

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