I've been watching the whole internet blackout situation in Egypt progress, at first with them blocking twitter and facebook, now they seem to have gone balls to the proverbial wall. All of the current recap can be found here at www.renesys.com as I'll not go over all the situation here, they did a pretty good job in summarizing the situation.
Now, I know the gut reaction is "Well their government had too much control! That's there, not here!" but, think about it, they've proven they can do this, they've blazed that trail, how long before other counties get the same bright idea? Now, a lot will be dictated by how this pans out, if we can even get information about it, with communications cut the rest of the world knows little of what if going on within those borders, but the fact remains, we know this has happened, they have been shut off.
Don't get me wrong, I love modern technology, but this is a very scary reminder of just how dependent we are on it as a race today. It shows how much we've grown to rely on it, to take it for granted. For many it is a primary method of communication, of organizing, even of getting help or resources when needed, the internet has become a very big part of our lives, but maybe we're taking it for granted too much. These people they cut off paid their internet bills, were under a contract, many just normal people like you, me, the guy next door, just average citizens, and they cut them off with thus far, no recourse. It's very, very sobering to see this happen and serves as a very sudden slap in the face. Think about it, how much control does your ISP have? You pay your bills, keep your end of the bargain, but can they do this to you? They did it to the people in Egypt.
I really think this proves that a backup plan for the people is a very good idea, because if cut off like this, a lot of people are up a certain creek without a paddle. Normally my blog entries are full of sarcasm, humor from time to time and a bit of snark, but not this time, this situation, the reality of it, is a very serious matter. Yea, some may read this and think that those who'd be effected by something like this spend too much time online, but that's far from truth. So much today is handled via the internet, bank accounts, many means of communication, medical networks, the economy itself is dependent on the internet, any major business would be unable to communicate with it's branches if the internet was cut. We're talking about no credit or debt cards working, no atms being able to communicate with accounts, business and school branches being unable to transfer data, no GPS, no cell phone usage considering how many use data plans, emergency services being less accessible, it's not a place we want to be in. It really is a wake up call.
Yes, it happened to another country, but Egypt has proven they can do it, counties often look to what others have done and the result to see if they can pull the same stunt, in this case, I'm just hoping it backlashes on Egypt's government with a vengeance, because if it doesn't, then it's opening a world wide can of worms.
More info on the Egypt situation:
Real time graph of connections from Egypt: http://stat.ripe.net/egypt
Video timeline: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M-Xz9fIPx8
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