Physical Infrastructure

The Internet backbone may be defined by the principal data routes between large, strategically interconnected computer networks and core routers of the Internet.

Everything starts with basic electrical signals that travel through wires in our cables. This is the first infrastructure of the internet.

What is the backbone of the internet?

So for you who think the internet is provided by satellites and all the computers are connected to each other through satellites, at least what Elon Musk is doing with Starlink, but since the 60s it's actually cables underground and even under the oceans.

97% of all internet traffic runs through this hidden infrastructure of thousands of miles of fiber optic cables that zig-zag our ocean floors.

Did you know? These cables are literally being eaten by fish, like sharks which now they are protected by various layers to withstand the dangers of deep dark oceans.

These cables form the underground infrastructure and are used to send and receive information to various systems.

These cable networks are laid and maintained by various governments and giant companies. Such projects are usually undertaken by multiple companies due to the large cost of investment. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) use each other's networks in an efficient manner rather than using foreign servers to allow foreign states to sniff their traffic.

There are also cables, called Terrestrial Cables which are located not on the oceans but on the land.

More than 550,000 miles of flexible undersea cables about the size of garden watering hoses carry all the world's emails, searches, and tweets.

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What are the major undersea cable routes?

The Euro-Atlantic area is the oldest undersea cable route and carries traffic between the two biggest economic hubs with dozens of cables, the majority of which are between the United States, the United Kingdom, and France.

THE ASIA-AFRICA-EUROPE cable travels 15,500 miles along the seafloor, connecting Hong Kong to Marseille, France. As it snakes through the South China Sea and toward Europe, the cable helps provide internet connections to more than a dozen countries, from India to Greece.

We are going to be talking about layers pretty soon and just remember that the physical infrastructure of the internet is formed by "Layer 1". Layer 1 consists of these cables and physical components hence it's called the Physical Layer of the Internet as well.

Slide from a Glimmerglass presentation on how undersea cables signals are tapped

Internet's Physical Infrastructure and Privacy

This global network of undersea cables provides the high-bandwidth connections needed for a wide range of activities vital for our modern society, from financial transactions to global communications.

Therefore we see state actors who control the bandwidth to lower the internet speed to intolerable, or totally disconnect a country from the internet by cutting these cables to plunge millions of citizens offline.

There might be also other more aggressive strategies like eliminating internet access for a targeted population, sabotaging an economic competitor, or causing economic disruption for geopolitical purposes.

In 2012, the only cable connecting Bangladesh to the international network was cut off and they lost their internet for nearly a month.

In July 2005, a portion of the submarine cable that provided Pakistan's major outer communications became defective, disrupting almost all of Pakistan's communications with the rest of the world, and affecting approximately 10 million Internet users.

In March 2007, pirates stole a submarine cable afflicting Vietnam's Internet users with far slower speeds. The thieves attempted to sell the 100 tons of cable as scrap.

There are also intelligence agencies that insert backdoors during the cable manufacturing process, targeting onshore landing stations and facilities linking cables to networks on land, or tapping the cables at sea.

Governments also attempt to block websites “for national security, the restoration of public order, and the prevention of crimes”. They cripple oversight of internet blocking orders, as part of creating digital cages around their their citizens.

Britain is, geographically, in an ideal position to access to cables as they emerge from the Atlantic, so there is cooperation between the NSA and GCHQ. Beyond that partnership, there are the other members of the "Five Eyes".

This is worrisome because it allows governments to make copies of everything that transverses these cables, if they wanted to.

A lawsuit filed by the operator of Wikipedia and other organizations challenges the US government's mass online surveillance programs, claiming that tapping into the Internet "backbone" is illegal.

The lawsuit was filed in Maryland federal court by the Wikimedia Foundation, Amnesty International USA, Human Rights Watch and other organizations.

It said the effort by the National Security Agency and other intelligence services "exceeds the scope of the authority that Congress provided" and violates US constitutional guarantees.

Now we will take a deeper dive into how each of these components works.