Critical Internet infrastructure

Critical Internet infrastructure is a collective term for all hardware and software systems that constitute essential components in the operation of the Internet.

Physical transmission lines of all types, such as wired, fiber optic and microwave links, along with routing equipment, the accompanying critical software services like the Domain Name System (DNS), Email, website hosting, authentication and authorization, storage systems, and database servers are considered critical Internet components^[1][2]. If any of these systems and services were to be interrupted for a significant period of time "[t]he Internet...as we know it would collapse".^[3]

See also

• Plain old telephone service
• Critical infrastructure

References

• Media Freedom Internet Cookbook by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Vienna, 2004
• Living Internet—Internet history and related information, including information from many creators of the Internet
• First Monday peer-reviewed journal on the Internet
• How Much Does The Internet Weigh? by Stephen Cass, Discover 2007
• Rehmeyer, Julie J. 2007. Mappin

• Castells, M. 1996. Rise of the Network Society. 3 vols. Vol. 1. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
• Castells, M. (2001), “Lessons from the History of Internet”, in “The Internet Galaxy”, Ch. 1, pp 9–35. Oxford Univ. Press.

External links

• How the Internet Came to Be
• Internet Explained
• Global Internet Traffic Report
• The Internet Society History Page
• RFC 801, planning the TCP/IP switchover
• European Future Internet Portal