The internet used to be something we connected to each time we used it. Now the internet has become this thing that quietly operates in the background of our devices. The better it works, the less we have to think about it.
So, what happens when the internet stops working? It’s hard to imagine going back to the days when our notifications didn’t come through instantly or when we had to dial into the internet to check our messages, but there is a real possibility that those days are coming in the not-so-distant future.
An Unsecure Infrastructure
The internet is basically transportation infrastructure for our data, connections to and from the places our data lives. Most of us are connected to the internet all day, every day. In that time, data is continuously transmitted to and from your devices, along with the more than 8 billion other devices Gartner predicts will come online by the end of 2017. Global IP traffic for 2016 topped a zettabyte, or 96 Exabyte per month.
By 2020, that traffic is projected to double according to Cisco. As the data grows, it becomes increasingly more difficult to protect. So far, we’ve put a lot of time and resources into protecting the three places where our data lives: public data centers, private data centers or public clouds.
There’s a lot less protection for all the stuff in the middle, like the highways, bridges and tunnels that all of our data travels on to get from one place to the other, and it’s making the internet a dangerous place for our data and our devices. A secure content delivery network (CDN) where data and content can be offloaded to edge servers can improve internet speed and put protection between various data sources and users, mitigating or preventing certain brute force attacks such as DDoS and SYN floods.
Weaponized Internet Devices
It is interesting to think that some of the primary things that make up the internet could be bringing it down. One, there are over 5 million devices coming online each date, causing exponential data growth. These connected devices include everything but the kitchen sink: printers, gaming console, cameras, refrigerators, washing machines, thermostats, lightbulbs, sprinkler systems, TVs, cars, locks, phones, watches. The list is endless.
All of these connected devices can be weaponized to attack or disrupt network operations and bring down a web service. As more devices come online, we see more frequent and larger-scale attacks. Without more focus on security, the open internet will be more like the Wild Wild West. It’s hard to imagine, but it’s not an exaggeration. As the number and size of brute force attacks and the amount of malware coming out every day continues to increase, the internet will quickly become so unsafe that no one would want to stay connected to it.
The safest way to use the internet will be to connect to the internet just long enough to complete a task and then disconnect when you’re done. Here are two resources to learn more about brute force and DDoS attacks.
An Inherently Secure Infrastructure
One of the major components of the internet, those responsible for building and maintaining the infrastructure our data travels on, are content delivery networks (CDNs). Soon nearly 80-percent of online traffic will travel across CDNs. The way we make the internet safer is by making sure all of those lanes that transport our data are safe. Behind the zettabyte of data on the web today are the consumers, businesses, and machines. That traffic is projected to more than double by 2020, and more traffic will mean more vulnerabilities. A secure content delivery network enhances security without sacrificing speed or reliability. Secure CDN also scales to meet growing content demands and network operations at hyperscale.
StackPath built one of the largest global backbones in the industry with points-of-presence (PoPs) on five continents. It’s not just lightning-fast and reliable, it’s also inherently secure.
StackPath’s secure CDN uses predictive analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to become better at detecting threats, making the network more secure with every threat detected. It’s a full-service CDN with features like web application firewall (WAF) and DDoS mitigation built-in, not bolted-on. It’s literally fixing the internet.
This is a sponsored post brought to you in collaboration with StackPath.
Choosing a CDN comes down to evaluating your content delivery needs up against what features and benefits each CDN offers. Learn more about StackPath here.
https://www.techspot.com/news/72371-what-breaking-internet-who-can-fix.html
