Don't be naive. How could the United States give up its Internet hegemony
Recently, it was reported that the United States agreed to formally transfer the management of Internet domain names to Internet Name and Number Distribution Company (ICANN) on October 1. However, this move was opposed by some members of Congress in the United States.
In this regard, some media believe that the transfer of domain name management from the United States to ICANN is an initiative of the United States to give up Internet hegemony. But in fact, the United States has not given up the global Internet hegemony in essence.
1. Critical root server
To understand how the United States controls the entire Internet, we must start with the most basic root domain name server.
Today's Internet originated from the opening of the United States to the civilian field in 1969, and gradually developed into today's Internet.
Although the Internet is floating high in the cloud, it seems ethereal, in fact, the normal operation of the Internet must be supported by corresponding software and hardware, and the root domain name server is one of the most important infrastructure supporting the operation of the entire Internet.
If every computer wants to connect to the Internet, it must have an IP address, which is composed of 32-bit binary numbers. Because it is difficult to remember the numeric IP address, DNS composed of a group of characters is often used when accessing the network. Because human beings lack foresight when designing the Internet, and there are too few IP addresses for different devices, different regions will use their own address representation to add addresses and form a distributed domain name database system.
This system uses hierarchical granted cache data of I-IP address correspondence to provide domain name resolution services, while the root domain name server stores cn, hk and other national and regional top-level domain names.
As I said before, whether a website can be accessed depends on whether the domain name can be resolved and the IP address corresponding to the domain name can be found. This is done by the domain name server (DNS server) in the Internet. The domain name server is a host with a domain name system, which is divided into a local domain name server and a root domain name server. The local domain name server stores the cache data of the corresponding relationship between the domain name and the IP address, which is used to provide domain name resolution services, while the root domain name server stores national and regional top-level domain names such as cn and hk.
Domain name resolution server). Therefore, the root domain name server is a very important infrastructure in the Internet.
2. The United States holds the Internet hegemony
Due to the limitation of data packet size in the domain name resolution protocol, there are only 13 root servers in the world, which are named with English letters A to M, including 1 primary root server in the United States and 12 secondary root servers. Among the secondary root servers, 9 are located in the United States, and one in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Japan. The following are the locations of 13 root servers:
A -- INTERNI.NET (Virginia, USA)
B -- American Institute of Information Science (California, USA)
C - PSINet (Virginia, USA)
D -- University of Maryland (Maryland, USA)
E - NASA (California, USA)
F - Internet Software Alliance (California, USA)
G -- Network Information Center of the US Department of Defense (Virginia, US)
H - US Army Research Institute (Maryland, US)
I - Autonomica (Stockholm, Sweden)
J - VeriSign (Virginia, USA)
K - RIPENCC (London, UK)
L - IANA (Virginia, USA)
M - WIDE Project (Tokyo, Japan)
It is no exaggeration to say that the root domain name server is the lifeblood of the Internet. If one or more of the 13 root domain name servers fail or are attacked by hackers and stop service, domain name resolution may not be possible, and Internet applications and services that rely on these domain name systems will stop working.
This has happened many times. On October 21, 2002, 13 root domain name servers were attacked by hackers, resulting in 9 root servers losing their ability to handle network communication, and the network was partially paralyzed; The root server of domain name resolution was attacked by hackers, and Baidu experienced extensive access failures, and most regions in the country were unable to access Baidu's website; On January 21, 2014, due to the exception of the root server that parses all general top-level domains in the country, the access of Baidu, Sina, Tencent, JD and many other websites was affected, and many websites were inaccessible.
The partial paralysis of the above network is only caused by the root server anomaly or hacker attacks. Once the country that is the main administrator of the root server can block the top-level domain names of some countries, so that these domain names cannot be resolved. Through this silent contest, the United States can make a country disappear in an instant on the Internet.
The partial paralysis of the above network is only caused by the root server anomaly or hacker attacks. Once the United States, as the main manager of the root server, takes the initiative, the impact will be extremely huge. With the management right of the root domain name server, the United States can block the top-level domain names of some countries, so that these domain names cannot be resolved. Through this silent contest, the United States can make a country disappear in an instant on the Internet.
For example, during the Iraq War in 2003, the U.S. government terminated the resolution of Iraq's national key level domain name IQ, resulting in the instant disappearance of all websites with IQ as the suffix from the Internet; In April 2004, due to differences with the United States on the management of the top-level domain name, the Libyan top-level domain name LY suddenly paralyzed, making Libya disappear in the Internet world for four days; The United States also cut off MSN instant messaging in Cuba, North Korea, Sudan and other countries in 2008, making it impossible for users in these countries to use MSN
It is precisely because the United States firmly controls the main root server and nine auxiliary root servers that the United States has always held the global Internet hegemony, even becoming an important tool of its power politics. Root servers have also become a major hidden danger affecting the network information security of other countries.
3. Handover does not mean abandonment
There is a precedent for reneging on its promise - the US Department of Commerce once promised that ICANN would give up the final veto when it met certain conditions, and set the deadline as 2006. However, on July 1, 2005, the US government announced that the US Department of Commerce would continue to sign a contract with ICANN and would retain the management right of 13 root domain name servers indefinitely.
Therefore, it is difficult to ensure that the US government will not repeat its old tricks when it only agrees to transfer the domain name management right to ICANN at this stage. As long as there are national and interest disputes, the possibility of the United States giving up its Internet hegemony completely is very small. The ostensibly transfer of domain name management is likely to be just a change of tack.
However, although the 13 root domain name servers are still controlled by ICANN authorized by the US government, theoretically controlling the root server can intercept, discard, tamper with, and forge information passing through the root server, China should not be too panicked. After all, China also has some counter measures in its hands.
First, after the root server sends a message, the IP address of the host queried is immediately returned to the requesting client. The domain name server will send a query request to the top-level root domain name server on the Internet only if there is no record of the host on the local domain name server.
Secondly, the information is transmitted in segments, and many civil information is encrypted. The information encryption means also have the function of anti tampering, especially the quantum communication being industrialized in China. Although the United States can do nothing to block the country's top-level domain name, it can prevent the information from being tampered with.
Finally, although COM, NET and other domain names are managed by the Internet Network Information Center, China Internet Network Information Center has set up a number of domain name servers nationwide responsible for CN domain name resolution, especially the root domain name mirror server - even if the root domain name server has suspended CN domain name resolution, it can ensure that some CN domain names can be accessed normally in China. Therefore, for example, government websites and financial securities websites mostly use CN domain names.
