Threats to the Physical security of Internet Communications Channels The Internet was designed from its inception to withstand attacks on its physical communication links. Recall from Chapter 2 that the main purpose of the U.S government research project that led to the development of the Internet was to provide an attack-resistant technology for coordinating military operations. Thus, the Internet's packet-based network design precludes it from being shut down by an attack on a single communications link on that network However, an individual user's Internet service can be interrupted by destruction of that user's link to the Internet. Few individual users have multiple connections to an ISP However, larger companies and organizations (and ISPs themselves) often do have more than one link to the main backbone of the Internet. Typically, each link is purchased from a different network access provider. If one link becomes overloaded or unavailable, the service provider can switch traffic to another network access provider's link to keep the company, organization, or ISP (and its customers) connected to the Internet Threats to the Physical security of Internet Communications Channels The Internet was designed from its inception to withstand attacks on its physical communication links. Recall from Chapter 2 that the main purpose of the U.S government research project that led to the development of the Internet was to provide an attack-resistant technology for coordinating military operations. Thus, the Internet's packet-based network design precludes it from being shut down by an attack on a single communications link on that network However, an individual user's Internet service can be interrupted by destruction of that user's link to the Internet. Few individual users have multiple connections to an ISP However, larger companies and organizations (and ISPs themselves) often do have more than one link to the main backbone of the Internet. Typically, each link is purchased from a different network access provider. If one link becomes overloaded or unavailable, the service provider can switch traffic to another network access provider's link to keep the company, organization, or ISP (and its customers) connected to the Internet