Internet Traffic Begins to Bypass the U.S. New York Times (08/30/08) P. B1; Markoff, John
as it appeared in the September 3, 2008 edition of ACM TechNews.
During the first three decades of the Internet most Web traffic flowed through the United States, but Internet traffic today is increasingly bypassing the U.S., which could have consequences for the intelligence community and the military. American intelligence officials have warned about this change for several years. "Because of the nature of global telecommunications, we are playing with a tremendous home-field advantage, and we need to exploit that edge," said CIA director Michael V. Hayden in 2006. "We also need to protect that edge, and we need to protect those who provide it to us." Some Internet technologists and privacy advocates say U.S. government and corporate policies that allowed the U.S. to monitor Internet traffic may be hastening the move away from the U.S. Electronic Privacy Information Center executive director Marc Rotenberg says since the passage of the Patriot Act, many companies outside the U.S. have been hesitant to store client information in the U.S. Economics also has led to the shift, with more countries recognizing the importance of having their own networking infrastructure, and how being reliant on other countries for their Internet traffic makes them vulnerable. University of Minnesota professor Andrew M. Odlyzko says the U.S. now carries about 25 percent of the world's Internet traffic, down from 70 percent 10 years ago. "Whether it's a good or a bad thing depends on where you stand," says computer scientist Vint Cerf. "Suppose the Internet was entirely confined to the U.S., which it once was? That wasn't helpful." Click Here to View Full Article
