Hijacking the Internet Is Far Too Easy

Justin Sherman wrote for Slate about internet traffic hijacking and what it means for the future of trust in the global network.

Did you have trouble accessing Google on Monday? If so, that’s because another country may have hijacked your internet traffic.

According to a Google blog post on the incident, users were temporarily unable to reach services for about an hour due to an issue “external” to the company. The Wall Street Journal reports research firm ThousandEyes said that bad network instructions rerouted traffic to Russian network TransTelekom, Nigerian internet provider MainOne, and China Telecom. Any of these countries may have been involved, though Russia and China are the most likely suspects.

Routing traffic through your borders is a way to view potentially sensitive information, from financial transactions to government documents. It’s all possible thanks to the protocols that run the global internet, which weren’t built with rigorous security in mind. But this sort of attack isn’t just about gleaning valuable information; it’s also about sowing distrust of the internet. Whether it’s Russia posting fake news on social media or Chinese companies remotely stealing intellectual property, authoritarians have long taken, encouraged, or allowed actions that demonstrate the internet’s insecurity and capacity for harm. It’s all part of their ongoing international push to justify tight control of the internet, like censorship and surveillance, within their borders.