Editing Internet access (section)

==Natural disasters and access==

Natural disasters disrupt internet access in profound ways. This is important—not only for telecommunication companies who own the networks and the businesses who use them, but for emergency crew and displaced citizens as well. The situation is worsened when hospitals or other buildings necessary for disaster response lose their connection. Knowledge gained from studying past internet disruptions by natural disasters could be put to use in planning or recovery. Additionally, because of both natural and man-made disasters, studies in network resiliency are now being conducted to prevent large-scale outages.<ref name="omer">[http://www.stevens-tech.edu/csr/fileadmin/csr/Publications/Omer_Measuring_the_Resilience_of_the_Global_Internet__Infrastructure.pdf Measuring the Resilience of the Global Internet Infrastructure System]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, 2009 3rd Annual IEEE Systems Conference, 156–162.</ref>

One way natural disasters impact internet connection is by damaging end sub-networks (subnets), making them unreachable. A study on local networks after [[Hurricane Katrina]] found that 26% of subnets within the storm coverage were unreachable.<ref name="Erjongmanee">[http://users.ece.gatech.edu/~jic/katrina.pdf Inference of Network-Service Disruption upon Natural Disasters] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130523173124/http://users.ece.gatech.edu/~jic/katrina.pdf |date=2013-05-23 }}, accessed 5 December 2012.</ref> At Hurricane Katrina's peak intensity, almost 35% of networks in Mississippi were without power, while around 14% of Louisiana's networks were disrupted.<ref name="Katrina">[http://www.renesys.com/tech/presentations/pdf/Renesys-Katrina-Report-9sep2005.pdf Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Internet Infrastructure] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121115094240/http://www.renesys.com/tech/presentations/pdf/Renesys-Katrina-Report-9sep2005.pdf |date=2012-11-15 }}, Renesys Report, 9 September 2005, accessed 5 December 2012.</ref> Of those unreachable subnets, 73% were disrupted for four weeks or longer and 57% were at "network edges were important emergency organizations such as hospitals and government agencies are mostly located".<ref name="Erjongmanee" /> Extensive infrastructure damage and inaccessible areas were two explanations for the long delay in returning service.<ref name="Erjongmanee" /> The company [[Cisco]] has revealed a Network Emergency Response Vehicle (NERV), a truck that makes portable communications possible for emergency responders despite traditional networks being disrupted.<ref name="NERV">[https://abc7news.com/archive/8867345/ Cisco trucks help restore internet after disasters], ABC News report, 30 October 2012, accessed 5 December 2012.</ref>

A second way natural disasters destroy internet connectivity is by severing submarine cables—fiber-optic cables placed on the ocean floor that provide international internet connection. A [[2006 Hengchun earthquakes|sequence of undersea earthquakes]] cut six out of seven international cables connected to [[Taiwan]] and caused a tsunami that wiped out one of its cable and landing stations.<ref name="telkom">[http://www.telkom.co.id/media-corner/press-release/taiwan-s-earthquake-and-tsunami-caused-internet-access-s-interference.html Taiwan’s Earthquake and Tsunami Caused Internet access’s Interference] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605104155/http://www.telkom.co.id/media-corner/press-release/taiwan-s-earthquake-and-tsunami-caused-internet-access-s-interference.html |date=2013-06-05 }}, Telkom Indonesia Press Release, 27 December 2006, accessed 5 December 2012.</ref><ref name="HKUST">[http://www.ust.hk/itsc/channel/2007feb/earthquake.html Impact of Taiwan Earthquake on Internet Access] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081228000932/http://www.ust.hk/itsc/channel/2007feb/earthquake.html |date=2008-12-28 }}, Choy, C. (2007). ''Channel'', The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, 46. Accessed 5 December 2012.</ref> The impact slowed or disabled internet connection for five days within the Asia-Pacific region as well as between the region and the United States and Europe.<ref name="Noblis">[http://www.noblis.org/NewsPublications/Publications/TechnicalPublications/SigmaJournal/Documents/Sigma_RE_UnderstandingAndMitigating.pdf Understanding and Mitigating Catastrophic Disruption and Attack] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130202174430/http://www.noblis.org/NewsPublications/Publications/TechnicalPublications/SigmaJournal/Documents/Sigma_RE_UnderstandingAndMitigating.pdf |date=2013-02-02 }}, Masi, D., Smith E., Fischer M. ''Telecommunications and Cybersecurity'', Noblis. Accessed 5 December 2012.</ref>

With the rise in popularity of [[cloud computing]], concern has grown over access to cloud-hosted data in the event of a natural disaster. [[Amazon Web Services]] (AWS) has been in the news for major network outages in April 2011 and June 2012.<ref name="AWS2011">[http://aws.amazon.com/message/65648/ Summary of the Amazon EC2 and Amazon RDS Service Disruption in the US East Region] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130907143711/https://aws.amazon.com/message/65648/ |date=2013-09-07 }}, AWS message, 29 April 2011, accessed 5 December 2012.</ref><ref name="AWS2012">[https://aws.amazon.com/message/67457/ Summary of the AWS Service Event in the US East Region] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130724051708/http://aws.amazon.com/message/67457/ |date=2013-07-24 }}, AWS message, 2 July 2012, accessed 5 December 2012.</ref> AWS, like other major cloud hosting companies, prepares for typical outages and large-scale natural disasters with backup power as well as backup data centers in other locations. AWS divides the globe into five regions and then splits each region into availability zones. A data center in one availability zone should be backed up by a data center in a different availability zone. Theoretically, a natural disaster would not affect more than one availability zone.<ref name="justinsb">[http://justinsb.posterous.com/aws-down-why-the-sky-is-falling AWS is down: Why the sky is falling] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121223213308/http://justinsb.posterous.com/aws-down-why-the-sky-is-falling |date=2012-12-23 }}, justinsb's posterous, 21 April 2011, accessed 5 December 2012.</ref> This theory plays out as long as human error is not added to the mix. The June 2012 major storm only disabled the primary data center, but human error disabled the secondary and tertiary backups, affecting companies such as [[Netflix]], [[Pinterest]], [[Reddit]], and [[Instagram]].<ref name="cloud">[http://cloud-computing-today.com/2012/06/18/amazon-web-services-june-2012-outage-explained/ Amazon Web Services June 2012 Outage Explained] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120718022121/http://cloud-computing-today.com/2012/06/18/amazon-web-services-june-2012-outage-explained/ |date=2012-07-18 }}, Cloud Computing Today, 18 June 2012, accessed 5 December 2012.</ref><ref name="crashcloud">[http://crashcloud.com/will-natural-disasters-kill-cloud/ Will Natural Disasters Kill the Cloud?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130617044216/http://crashcloud.com/will-natural-disasters-kill-cloud/ |date=2013-06-17 }}, CrashCloud, 21 August 2012, accessed 5 December 2012.</ref>