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["Alex M (Coyo)" <coyo AT darkdna.net>]

On 03/16/2013 01:10 PM, Alex M (Coyo) wrote:
> If we constructed our own ISP and eventually achieved teir 2 status, 
> owned and/or hosted our own datacenters, and had one or more 
> residential and business broadband divisions, then the "big boys" as 
> Brian put it would be forced to peer with us, or be held legally 
> accountable for disrupting critical infrastructure and threatening 
> national security.
Despite managing to misspell tier, I actually do know what I'm talking 
about, to a large extent, when it comes to carrier-grade networking.

Many of my friends are senior network engineers or senior datacenter 
server admins, and I am constantly conversing with them about real-world 
implementation and operational details.

A friend of mine, who will remain unnamed, because he does love his job, 
but he does, in fact, work as a senior network engineer for Verizon, and 
does a whole hell of a lot more than he's technically paid to do. As a 
result, he has no compunction about filling me in on internal 
operational and deployment details his company would feel comfortable 
with being disclosed.

It is highly instructional.

Another one of my better/best friends is a senior server administrator 
for Softlayer, and is also severely underpaid and unappreciated, and 
though he's a lot more respectful of corporate privacy, the fact that 
the federal agencies regularly visit to conduct questionable domestic 
espionage on American citizens on American soil probably is a factor there.

However, he does disclose some very instructional details in datacenter 
policies and conduct, operation and deployment, and that is highly 
useful to me in terms of strategy and possible attack vectors, if push 
came to shove.

It turns out the "critical infrastructure" that factors into national 
security is held together with gum and shoestrings. The feds have every 
reason to worry. It would not take more than an incidental gust of wind 
to destroy the house of cards that comprises the foundation of the 
entire American economy, financial networks, manufacturing and 
industrial communications, including military and intelligence 
communications. As you probably already know, nearly everything relies 
on computers, and by extension, the Internet. Even military networks are 
either tunneled over existing MPLS networks, or use common 
infrastructure side-by-side with civilian communications networks.

Obviously, through such things as Signaling System 7, carrier grade SIP, 
and other such systems, all "hardline" PSTN telephony also relies on 
common communications infrastructure, all of which is ridiculously 
delicate, insecure, and extremely and perversely easy to undermine and 
collapse.

It's pretty pathetic, really.

That said, to the extent that the "big boys," as Brian put it, do 
conduct the operation of their networks, it is very educational to learn 
of their deployment details and counter-attack response tactics.

It is very helpful strategic information when deploying my own carrier 
network, especially when it comes to peering at Internet Exchange 
Points, which turn out to not be distinct buildings, as I was led to 
believe, but are actually MPLS switching fabrics within existing 
datacenters, which makes purchasing dark fiber already buried to such 
locations a lot more affordable and practical.

It is entirely possible to construct, deploy, operate, and fund a 
regional 10-gigabit active Ethernet fiber-to-the-premises broadband 
network that would blow anything that could possibly exist clean out of 
the water. It is entirely possible. All I need to do is hire a few 
freelance ghostwriters, editors, illustrators, etc. to assist me in 
writing a comprehensive and impressive business proposal to submit to 
the largest investor bank that exists and get a business loan sufficient 
to construct such a network.

I am highly confident that such a venture would not only be financially 
viable, but extremely successful, as well as essential for the continued 
relevance of American domestic enterprises in international commerce and 
trade, as well as American military supremacy.

It is not as though I'm a huge American patriot, but I am perfectly 
willing to design my network to defend domestic interests if it would 
mean I could qualify for state and federal grants to assist in funding 
such a venture.