| It's actually interesting why this idea is so totally wrong. So Telecom Malaysia messed up a config, and Global Crossing accepted their updates automatically. Global Crossing didn't have to accept the bad update. They generally trust updates from other organisations that are generally trustworthy. They apply checks and restrictions proportionate to the risks involved. These mistakes happen rarely. If they were to happen more often, major operators would apply more checks and restrictions. If they were to stop happening, operators would apply less checks and restrictions, because they have a cost in manpower, complexity, and loss of flexibility. That's how the internet works. You could almost say that's what the internet is--the idea of being actively managed by people who know what they're doing and are not bound by exhaustive predefined policies is defining of how the internet came about and how it came to be dominant. If you want a network guaranteed to be resistant to this kind of f---up, build one. The internet is that network which does not work that way, which is flexible, expandable, mostly "good enough" but not ever designed for absolute reliability. |
OTOH, so much in telecom is hung together on the assumption of basically good actors everywhere.