1. Splinternet:
Splinternet or Internet balkanization refers to the ongoing spread of a concept, where isolated Internet blocks are evolving within certain country boundaries. The prediction here is that over time this will bleed over the country’s border, and a new splinternet formed in collation with similar minded nations. This leads to a complete censorship of the views, information, standard of living from the opposing side (as per them the hostile side). A major role played in splinternet is by the political aspirations of a country, and these are easily aided and abetted by the advanced firewall and deep packet inspection technology, literary fulfilling the phrase finding a “needle in a haystack”.
This is already a reality in North Korea, Russia, China, Iran, and few other countries but to varying flavors. If analyzed these flavors could be broken down into three unique patterns and we will discuss those in this paper. Why this is happening and the effects of it on society are also a part of our discussion. Is there any chance this issue could be resolved by some means? The answer to that question we all know, how fragmented everyone has become, making it difficult to reason out with certain mind sets. However, we could re-design the Internet in a SMART way, knowing every second person today has a powerful computer in their hands a.k.a. smart phone. This was not the assumption when the Internet was originally designed in the sixties. If no action is taken, then we may have to retire the phrase “Global Internet is The Information Highway of the world”.
The Internet since inception is viewed as a global network connecting people with information across a country’s geographic boundaries. In recent years, a growing number of countries have implemented measures to splinter the Internet within their borders, creating a “splinternet” that is increasingly fragmented, segmented, and re-designed to provide selective information access.
Splinternet helps countries control the message and stops its population exposure to external ideas. At the same time, it allows a fine grain control on internal information dissemination to the rest of the world. For example, New York Times, Bloomberg and Google are banned in China and Russia, just as an example [1], [2 list of apps / websites banned in China], [3 list of websites blocked in Russia]. Usually, the reasons for initiating splinternet are commerce / e-commerce, or a desire to protect local industries, or divergent national interests, or national security concerns, nationalism, politics, population control, or religion / morality in many cases, and/or technology. These are the few factors that are playing a key role in the Splinternet’s growth.
2. A peek into global Internet Management:
The management of global Internet is an extremely complex and decentralized process. The responsibility of managing the global Internet is distributed among multiple entities for various aspects of Internet governance. Let us peek into these decentralized entities and understand why none of these entities have a mandate or role to promote Global Internet as “The Information Highway of the world”.
⁂ #1 Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN): This is a non-profit organization that manages the domain name system (DNS), IP address allocation, and other internet protocol resources. ICANN provides a service to the IETF and the Internet community through its Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions, which serves the IETF by publishing its protocol parameters and administering IP addresses and ASNs (Autonomous System Number) (“ICANN’s Relationship with the IETF”). IANA is a standards organization that oversees global IP address allocation, ASNs allocation, root zone management in the DNS, media types, and other Internet Protocol-related symbols and Internet numbers. (“Internet Assigned Numbers Authority — CodeDocs”) IANA is also responsible for gTLDs (generic Top-Level Domains).
I am sure as a reader you must have gotten lost somewhere in the last 100 words, describing three key entities, playing critical roles, leading to the Internet maturity as we see today. Don’t get me wrong, one of my colleagues is in the sub-committees of ICANN and the people designing and managing the global Internet are so smart that some of them know exactly which bit in a protocol can do what. There are more than these three entities that play a role in Internet Health today.
⁂ #2 Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF): The IETF is a standards organization that develops and promotes Internet standards, including the standards for TCP/IP (for the non-techies this is the language that Global Internet speaks), HTTP, and other protocols.
⁂ #3 World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): The W3C is a standards organization for the World Wide Web, founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee. W3C develops and promotes web standards, including HTML, CSS, and XML.
⁂ #4 Internet Governance Forum (IGF): The IGF is a multi-stakeholder forum that brings together various country stakeholders to discuss and address issues related to Internet governance.
⁂ #5 Internet Society (ISOC): The ISOC is a non-profit organization that promotes the open development, evolution, and use of the global Internet.
⁂ #6 Regional Internet Registries (RIRs): The RIRs are non-profit organizations that manage the distribution of IP addresses within their respective regions. ARIN [1] is the American Registry for Internet Numbers. It is an RIR for North America & North Atlantic islands. RIRs does many critical things but one among their key functions is to assign unique numbers to the networks and hosts in each region, just like your house has a number in your locality, or your phone has one too. The only difference is in the format (nomenclature) of these numbers. The remaining 4 sister RIRs for other world regions are:
⁑ AFRINIC: For Africa & portions of the Indian Ocean.
⁑ APNIC: For portions of Asia & portions of Oceania.
⁑ LACNIC: For Latin America & portions of the Caribbean.
⁑ RIPE NCC: For Europe, the Middle East & for Central Asia.
⁂ #7 National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA): The NTIA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce that oversees the management of the root DNS zone and other Internet-related functions.
⁂ #8 International Telecommunication Union (ITU): The ITU [1] is a specialized agency of the United Nations that develops and coordinates international telecommunications standards and policies.
⁂ #9 Internet Architecture Board (IAB): The IAB is a technical advisory committee that provides guidance and advice on technical and operational aspects of the Internet.
⁂ #10 IEEE Internet Initiative [1] provides a platform to propagate the values Internet brings within a country and provides Internet governance-guidance to the country’s Internet policy makers.
The above list of key entities juggling different responsibilities for global Internet. By no means it is a complete one. I know reading this is extremely overwhelming but is required to find a solution to the problem we are discussing. Despite all these agencies and many smart people dedicating their time to the working of the Internet, we are not able to keep the Internet as The Global Information Highway. The reason is, there is no focus, it is no one entity’s responsibility to address the splinternet problem we are discussing.
Now in addition to these distributed entities, in some countries there are dedicated government agencies that overlook the Internet strategy. These country agencies are directly under the existing government and most of the time the Internet is used as a tool to propagate the agenda / goals of that regime. This does not happen in all countries, but wherever this happens, it promotes the growth of splinternet making the resolution to this problem more urgent.
3. Internet history in less than 3 minutes:
In 1961 Leonard Kleinrock published his thesis on packet switching theory [1], which later became the foundation of the Internet as we know today. In 1969 ARPANET [1] creates the first computer network utilizing packet switching technology. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) launched this. Then in 1971 the first email [1] was sent by Ray Tomlinson, a computer engineer. In 1974 the first commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP) Telenet came into existence. The first computer bulletin board system (BBS) was born in 1976. Then later in 1981 the first online chat system called Talkomatic was devised by students at the University of Illinois (my home state). Then ARPANET adopts the TCP/IP protocol in 1983, which becomes the standard for the Internet, upon which we are still riding.
In 1985 America Online (AOL) is founded and it becomes one of the most popular ISP of the nineties. Then four years later in 1989 Tim Berners-Lee develops the World Wide Web (WWW), a system of hypertext documents that can be accessed through the Internet. This system (WWW) leads to the birth of the first web browser, called “WorldWideWeb” by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990. Next year in 1991, the first website providing information about the WWW project was launched by CERN. In 1993 the first search engine Archie was created. Finally, Netscape, the first commercially successful web browser, was released in 1994 and the rest is history in the living memories of the readers.
The original goal of the Internet in 1960s from ARPANET was to create a decentralized communication network that could survive a nuclear attack. In the late 1960s the same project was used to allow researchers to share information and communicate with each other over a distributed network across countries’ geographic boundaries. The ARPANET was designed to be a reliable and fault-tolerant network that could continue to function even if some of its nodes were destroyed in a nuclear attack. This was achieved by using a packet-switching network architecture, which allowed data to be routed around “failed nodes” and other problematic sub-networks. Over time, the ARPANET grew and evolved into the Internet that we know as of today, which has become a critical global communication infrastructure and The Global Information sharing Highway.
4. Revisiting The Problem
The days of true global Internet are numbered. The fracturing started few decades ago when countries like North Korea rolled out their network off from the rest of the world’s so-called Internet. On April 20, 1994, China inaugurated its Internet by connecting its network with the global Internet for the first time ever. Ironically just three years later China came out with the phrase “the Great Chinese firewall” [1]. We all know the exact function of this firewall. Reasons for the cutting off free Internet was in the interest of Chinese government because Internet was becoming a showstopper for their agenda and so starts the slow process of splinternet. Many countries are following China’s lead, and, in many cases, China plays a lead role in providing the Internet equipment / technology and know-how to countries for splinternet purpose.
5. Splinternet patterns:
5.1. Pattern #1: Blackout.
Blackout is the first and easiest tactic deployed when a country wants to censor the Internet from (i) spreading counter intuitive messages among the social media. This technique deployed in two ways. One by selective blocking of Internet web sites or critical social media platforms. Second, a complete blackout for a period because the Internet is used as the mass communication medium, and it is the fastest means of spreading a message in the country and across the globe. (ii) Is used in stopping external influences on country’s population and (iii) Is used purely for censorship.
⁑ In 2020, it was observed at least 155 Internet blackouts in 29 countries, including in India and Nigeria [1].
⁑ India has seen the highest number of Internet shutdowns in 2018 and 2019, with 134 and 106 reported blackouts, respectively. In 2018, 12 Internet blackouts were observed in Pakistan [1].
Blackouts are the easiest means as no special skills or equipment required. Just an order to the ISP this could be achieved. In some cases, the government itself runs and controls full Internet Infrastructure.
5.2. Pattern #2: Permanent filtering of specific Internet websites.
This tactic is same as above, only difference is censorship applied here is permanent. The best example of this tactic could be seen in India, when Indian government ordered the removal of hundreds of Chinese apps from mobile app stores [1], [2], [3]. Same is done routinely in China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, and few other countries.
⁑ VLC media player web site is permanently banned in India [1]. VLC is a media player that works on mobile devices and on workstations of all O.S. flavors and is uniquely capable of playing archaic and unpopular video formats for free.
5.3. Pattern #3: Government ownership of Internet entry points into a country.
This is the ultimate tactic to have granular control of what is allowed via the Internet. In this strategy the government completely takes control of the country’s outgoing and incoming Internet pipelines and exclusively decides what is allowed and what is blocked. In some extreme cases the Internet is completely blocked and a parallel country’s Internet with no external interference replaces it. North Korea is the best example of using this tactic for few decades. China and Russia are moving in this direction at a very fast pace.
6. Summary & Conclusion:
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt in April of 2006 predicted that the future Internet will have two flavors. One America led and the other Chinese led Internet [1]. The Splinternet is creating fragmentation of the Internet into separate, distinct networks that are subject to different rules, regulations, and standards. We all can agree Internet splintering trend is progressing fast and if no new variable brought into this equation, Eric Schmidt’s prediction will come true soon.
The solution here is to encourage the Internet community and entities associated with some form of Internet agenda on their manifesto to re-design a SMART Internet, just like we did in sixties but this time the goal will be different and will be to create a True Global Information Highway, and we can take the assumption into the design that is a fairly powerful computer a.k.a. smart phone is in the hands of every second individual. We can form a new sub-committee of the few entities listed above with this specific new Internet goal and start working on a solution.
This is a complex problem and requires a multi-faceted approach involving a wide range of stakeholders. A dedicated new mandate to develop new standards to address splinternet will certainly help. In the sixties we designed the Internet at a time by inventing technology when it did not exist.
Today we have both expertise and technology, the missing variables in the equation are the will, the direction, and the leadership.
The next most important thing you and I can do is to educate the public and our peers. Raising awareness among the risks of the splinternet can certainly help build the momentum and support for the efforts to address this issue.
There are at least two projects / experiments I am aware of, which to a certain extent, try to partially achieve our stated goal. Those projects are:
(i) The BRIAR associated with sending secure messages from anywhere. A pilot is happening, and anyone can download a mobile application from Google Play store and F-Droid and participate in this experiment.
(ii) CWTCH, which could be read as surveillance resistant infrastructure. You can certainly participate in this also to see how this works.
If you know any other project or initiative in this direction, please drop me an email. No action is not a choice this time. Failure will lead us to wonder which pool of splinternet we will be part of in the time to come!
7. About The Author
Asad Syed is a graduate of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics. His experience spans in Security Architecture, Security Operation Management, Digital Investigations & Forensics, Crisis & Threat Simulation, GRC Management, Threat Hunting, Cybersecurity Emerging Trends & Threat Mitigation, Database Security, Identity & Access Management, and Identity Federation. His interests are in the application of newer technologies, to enhance the output performance of technologies with which he is working. He is a writer, teacher, and cybersecurity evangelist, who has worked for multiple fortune five hundred companies and currently providing cybersecurity consulting to the upstream operations of the oil and gas industry. Reach him via Asad at ASyed dot com. ■
