[kictanet] NSA Tapping into Google & Yahoo Networks? How is Kenya protected?

[Mark Elkins]

On Thu, 2013-10-31 at 11:59 +0300, Ali Hussein wrote:
> Listers
> 
> 
> There is a case for a hybrid approach to Internet Security and
> Governance. No one wants Balkanisation of the Internet but no one also
> wants one country controlling most of the levers that run the Internet
> running roughshod over everyone else!!

I believe that the owner of an e-mail account should have their mailbox
as close as they can to themselves.
If its a company mail box - host the mail server at the office.
If its for a private individual, use the local ISP.
I can not see a need to use services such as gmail - unless the service
at the ISP or your company is completely dreadful.
That should be an opportunity to get things fixed.

Keeping mail as local as possible should just make common sense.

The same holds for web sites - unless your target audience is worldwide
and  evenly dispersed. If a website has a local orientation - it should
be local. I guess the same could be said for the Domain names that are
used.

"Cloud" storage (the fancy newish name for keeping systems in an ISP's
Data-Centre - which has been around for years) - should be localised or
at least in the same country. The primary reason for not doing this
would be for disaster recovery purposes - where you require a copy of
your data a hundred or more kilometres from where you are for "safety"
sake..

All of the above should help local connectivity grow in speed/efficiency
and drop in price.

This should not stop the Internet as a whole from continuing to be
important. Fragmentation would be bad, really bad. Building new
international fibre links - eg BRICS - Brazil --> South Africa --> India
--> China --> Russia - is a good thing. More redundant links. I'm pretty
sure though that all the BRICS Intelligent Agencies will snoop the
packets...

I believe that people are chowing out the US Government (as they got
caught last) - to move attention from the fact that other governments
are also doing the same thing or wishing they could do the same - and
would if they technically could.

Being English - I guess I have the attitude that as I'm not doing
anything "wrong" in the Internet - my data should pass beneath the
radar. I (hmm..) trust my government. Of course certain entities could
be (OK - probably are) using my data for nefarious purposes...

Its going to happen, or rather is and has been happening for years.
The Internet is just more efficient and the world just a bit smaller.
 
-- 
  .  .     ___. .__      Posix Systems - (South) Africa
 /| /|       / /__       mje at posix.co.za  -  Mark J Elkins, Cisco CCIE
/ |/ |ARK \_/ /__ LKINS  Tel: +27 12 807 0590  Cell: +27 82 601 0496