The stupid wall of the internet

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Russia got serious last year about being able to cut off its telecommunications from the global internet. 

It was but a matter of time till some *insert disparaging word here* came up with the proposal that the West or the EU should be able to do so as well.

Let me explain in a concise form why this is utter bollocks and nothing but a threat to our freedom:

1) Disconnecting from the global internet helps a government to oppress its population by excluding dissenting information and it helps itself avoid repercussions by keeping its oppression less visible to the rest of the world (example Iran 2019).

2) Disconnecting DOES NOT in any way help against subversive information without suppressing freedom of speech and freedom of the press domestically. A tiny microSD card that could be hidden almost anywhere and thus easily be smuggled could 'infect' the interior area of such a cut-off space with the subversive information. It would require domestic oppression of information to defeat this. This would require a totalitarian government.

3) Disconnecting DOES NOT protect against 'cyber warfare'. A large-scale attack would rather more likely than not be launched BEFORE the EU could de-couple from the internet. To disconnect would cause extreme economic costs and dissatisfaction. It would thus require a very, very convincing argument.

The disconnecting would thus happen late - too late. We would not disconnect in peacetime, period. We should not be aggressors, so in any legitimate war of ours our enemy would have the opportunity to launch his 'cyber offensive' before we disconnect.

4) Hostile intelligence services could easily and quite cheaply prepare against this by preparing sleeper cells that could still launch a 'cyber offensive' AFTER the de-coupling.

5) Disconnecting would only affect the official connections. There could still be cross-border connections by radio or laser comm, or even use of not European-controlled comm satellite networks (and jamming satellite networks is not part of the proposal). Every private EU-internet-connected computer with such an unofficial connection to the outside world would constitute a  gateway despite the official disconnection.* Hostile intelligence could easily install such gateways, even fully automated ones.

So in conclusion; people may be serious about preparing our telecommunications and the things that depend on telecommunications for the case of all-out 'cyber warfare'. A switch to turn the EU into an internet island, disconnected from the rest of the world internet, still makes no sense.

We should rather identify critical institutions and businesses that require the ability to disconnect themselves. Critical infrastructure should not receive software updates over the internet (every online updater is de facto a backdoor) or insecurely sourced spare parts, and their timely patching should be regulated and supervised with greatest fervour. ANY intelligence service's demand for backdoors in software or hardware should be answered with extreme prejudice against said bureaucracy. 

There are many possible actions to mitigate some of the 'cyber warfare' harm done to us in a future war scenario. To disconnect from the rest of the world is the most primitive option, and an easily circumvented one. Such preparations suit oppressive governments only.

S O

defence_and_freedom@gmx.de

*: This and efforts like Starlink render Russia's internet disconnection switch mostly useless, too. They would need to have an excellent surveillance and censorship enforcement on their national internet to complement their disconnection ability (see #2).

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