Ukraine Pushes to Unplug Russia from the Internet

[Nevilledog]

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Tweet text:

Eamon Javers
@EamonJavers
·
Mar 1, 2022
NEW: Global Internet domain management nonprofit ICANN confirms to me it has received a letter from the Ukrainian government asking to remove Russian domains from the global Internet.
“We can confirm that we’ve received the letter and are reviewing it,” said a spokeswoman.

Eamon Javers
@EamonJavers
Spokeswoman Angelina Lopez said, “We have no further comment at this time.”
This was first reported by @RollingStone today: https://rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/ukraine-icann-russia-internet-runet-disconnection-1314278/…
The mag said Ukrainian government asked ICANN to “revoke domains issued in Russia + shut down primary Domain Name System servers"

Ukraine Pushes to Unplug Russia from the Internet
rollingstone.com
Ukraine Pushes to Unplug Russia from the Internet
Ukrainian officials have requested that ICANN revoke domains issued in Russia and shut down primary DNS servers in the country.
11:43 AM · Mar 1, 2022

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/ukraine-icann-russia-internet-runet-disconnection-1314278/

No paywall
https://archive.fo/Cc80O


In the latest attempt to thwart Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, officials are requesting that the organization responsible for maintaining servers integral to the operation of the internet take steps that have the potential to disconnect Russia from cyberspace completely, Rolling Stone has exclusively learned.

According to an email reviewed by Rolling Stone and verified by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Ukraine’s request to ICANN seeks to revoke domains issued in Russia and shut down primary Domain Name System (DNS) servers in the country — a move that would effectively bar access to Russian internet sites, with the potential of knocking the entire country offline.

“No one anywhere in the world would be able to reach any Russian website,” explains Bill Woodcock, Executive Director of Packet Clearing House, a nonprofit that provides support and security to a collection of software and hardware systems known as critical internet infrastructure. “People inside Russia, unless they had good connectivity to the rest of the world, would be unable to reach any other part of the Internet — just Russian parts.”

Representatives for ICANN — a California-based nonprofit responsible for protecting “the operational stability of the internet” via the management of the global DNS root zone — verified the email’s authenticity, but declined to comment further.

*snip*

[AlexSFCA]

1. would that prevent ordinary russians to access real news on the internet - the only way

to access facts. If so then I don’t see how it’s helpful.

[zonemaster]

2. I think the Russian public's internet-based news is already highly censored

And, to be honest, such a huge percentage of them have been fed complete, propagandistic garbage for so long, they would probably not know real news if they saw it. You can say the same about a lot of Trump acolytes in this country, as well. Cutting them off from the internet would likely help significantly reduce their ability to execute various cyber-warfare activities.

For the last few years, I've thought about the world doing something like this but thought it'd be too draconian and would never fly. With the level of all of the various sanctions now falling daily upon Russia's head, this would just be another. Their economy and society are headed for a comparative stone-age, thanks to Putin.

[hunter]

3. This is a dumb idea by someone who doesn't know how the internet works.

To actually cut off Russia you'd have to mess with the physical cables. Here in the 21st that's almost equivalent to using nukes. All hell would break loose.

[roamer65]

4. You would have to know IP addresses if DNS is removed.

[hunter]

7. There's no single DNS server.

By convention DNS servers mirror ICANN and their quality is judged by how well they do that and how fast. But anyone can roll their own, and they do.

The google public DNS, for example, is 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

Cloudflare is 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1

You can set these up on your own computer.

There are also many open versions not controlled by commercial or quasi-governmental entities.

If external DNS fails in Russia they can use their own.

China controls DNS routinely as part of their "Great Firewall." Even so, there are ways around the firewall. But most people in China avoid that sort of mischief for fear of that midnight knock on the door followed by involuntary relocation, unpleasant re-education, and public shaming. Which may or may not be better than Russia where any dissident might throw themselves down some stairs and out an upper floor window with a suicide note in their pocket.

[crickets]

5. It's essentially asking them to break the internet.

I understand why Ukraine is making the request, but is it really a good idea? What precedent will it set?

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Eamon Javers @EamonJavers
There is a vigorous debate about whether that's a good idea. Pro: Russia deserves the toughest sanctions that will most deeply affect its economy. Con: This could cut everyday Russians off from independent news about the war, and Balkanize the global Internet.
1:43 PM · Mar 1, 2022

It's a good thing that the internet works the way it's supposed to and isn't easy to disrupt. The problem isn't the internet itself, but what's on the internet. Way more pressure should be applied to media outlets and social media companies that aren't pushing back against if not outright blacklisting Russian bot farms and propaganda outlets.

Naive question: As for cyberattacks, what methods are there to block outgoing sabotage without blocking the Russian people from receiving news?

The Russian people are at the beginning of a long, painful economic slide from sanctions. Do they deserve to be completely isolated from the rest of the online world? They might feel written off and deserted by that, and rightly so. What might be the long term blowback?

[crickets]

6. Food for thought:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150310-how-to-break-the-internet

About how internet communications work and the sometimes unintended consequences of messing with it.

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/global-5

Discussion of government censorship, localized internet shutdowns, and how they can backfire.

Another thought: cutting Russia off the internet makes it more difficult to keep an eye on what is happening there, and restricts the ability of the people to ask the world for help if things go terribly sour for them in the coming months.