Internet Atlas maps the physical internet to enhance security

Aardwolf 9 years ago |

"first detailed map of the Internet's structure worldwide"

Opens the link to the article. Sees map of the U.S. only. Finds no links in the article linking to a world map either...

ptaipale 9 years ago | |

chuckle

World Series of Internet.

The article carefully avoids providing a link to the actual site, but it is here:

http://internetatlas.org/

lloydjatkinson 9 years ago | | |

I wonder why people get off on writing articles and hinting at the reader about the original article or PDF and then never linking it? Are they that desperate to keep people on their site just for the ads?

rindalir 9 years ago | | |

This is somewhat odd, but in the Terms and Conditions on the original site it prohibits linking to the site from any other site or document...

shmerl 9 years ago | | |

This is simply absurd.

euyyn 9 years ago | | |

lol so Hacker News is out of compliance with those terms now?

gefh 9 years ago | | |

I prohibit you from _not_ linking to it. It's roughly the same legal argument.

nickpsecurity 9 years ago | | |

Nah, copyright law prohibits by default as I read it. Then, author selectively grants permissions.

DeepYogurt 9 years ago | | |

It's 2017 and this thing needs flash... sigh. Thanks for the link.

nickpsecurity 9 years ago | | |

A site trying to "enhance security" at that. Maybe the job security of bot herders.

shmerl 9 years ago | | |

It's in the map image, though barely visible.

chippy 9 years ago |

It's not the first internet atlas, and I'm not sure how detailed it is (cant open it because of Flash), or how accurate and what bias it may have either (I see that it is US Govt DHS funded).

Last year I helped develop The New Cloud Atlas https://thinkwhere.wordpress.com/2016/08/17/the-new-cloud-at... which is essentially a custom map rendering of Internet and Telecoms infrastructure from OpenStreetMap. If you want to add more information to a map of the Internet, add it to OSM.

(edits: added link to blog post explaining it)

bahjoite 9 years ago | |

Fascinating blog post and project; thank you for sharing. It would be nice if the Atlas were available over HTTPS.

tangoalpha 9 years ago |

There is only a screenshot of the US. The world map looks hidden in some url linked in the article. And when you try the link, it works only on flash. No thank you.

slowmotiony 9 years ago | |

I actually did click the "Allow Flash" button, but only to find that the page hanged and I had to kill it. Quite underwhelming so you didn't lose a lot

nwatson 9 years ago | | |

Except that the "hang" is all the malware downloading to your computer.

bfirsh 9 years ago |

A link to the actual thing: http://internetatlas.org

spc476 9 years ago | |

Did you get written consent to provide that link? Their TOS says you have to: "8. You may not create a link to this Site from another website or document without WAIL's prior written consent."

adrianN 9 years ago | | |

I never visited the site, so I didn't have to agree to any ToS, but I heard http://internetatlas.org/ contains interesting content.

kbart 9 years ago | | |

This doesn't seem legit. The map is on public Internet, so that's like putting an ad on yellow pages and forbid anyone to call. Add authorization if you need access control.

kayoone 9 years ago | | |

I wonder if any of the crawlers in the world care. What a ridiculous thing to put on a website on the public internet.

tomsthumb 9 years ago | | |

Seeing as how they don't have a robots.txt, probably not.

TeMPOraL 9 years ago | | |

Holy shit, that's literally the funniest thing I saw on the Internet this month.

I can imagine how such an idea could occur to someone completely non-technical, but presumably authors of the site are somewhat knowledgeable about the Internet...

filmor 9 years ago | |

Even more direct link: http://atlas-test.wail.wisc.edu/InternetAtlasLimited/

ak007 9 years ago |

Something like this exists already http://www.submarinecablemap.com/

I found this to be much better

UberActivist 9 years ago | |

That's just underwater cables though. That's not the actual land infrastructure that connects everyone together.

ak007 9 years ago | | |

You are correct !

fgrimes 9 years ago |

http://atlas-test.wail.wisc.edu/InternetAtlasLimited/

cobbzilla 9 years ago |

Nice map of the US in the article, but where's the world map?

vernie 9 years ago |

The Flash viewer and ridiculous TOS doesn't give me much confidence in their data.

peter303 9 years ago |

There has been incidents where areas of the world have been temporarily cut off because their main cable was accidentally or intentionally cut.

peter303 9 years ago |

South Dakota seems to be under-connected. I wonder why.

A lot of fiber was laid along railroad right of ways. SD has both rails and freeways.

marklyon 9 years ago |

Every time I see maps like this, I'm reminded of WorldCom.

All those pipes running through Mississippi, no real way to make use of them.

triode3 9 years ago |

Well, if one were moving to the US, stay away from South Dakota, if you like close proximity to a backbone.

alkimie2 9 years ago |

I can't seem to get the links to work. Hacker News effect?

geoffreyhale 9 years ago |

What % of internet traffic travels via physical links?

_Codemonkeyism 9 years ago |

"Internet Atlas maps the physical internet to enhance security"

"To view this page ensure that Adobe Flash Player version 11.1.0 or greater is installed."

longsleep 9 years ago | |

Makes me sad that something "new" still requires Flash in 2017 :/

ekianjo 9 years ago | | |

Could have been worse. Sometimes you still find sites requiring Silverlight.

turblety 9 years ago | | |

Makes me happy the OP didn't have Flash installed. Fingers crossed they didn't install it just to see the site.

_Codemonkeyism 9 years ago | | |

I didn't :-)