Implications of vulnerable internet infrastructure

Abstract

As awareness for Internet attacks gains traction, multiple proposals for defences are put forth. The proposals include, among others, secure access and communication to services, such as web, email and instant messaging. Do these efforts suffice to guarantee a secure Internet for clients and services? To answer this question we review the state of the Internet infrastructure security and show that it is still largely vulnerable to attacks. Although defences exist, they mostly are deployed incorrectly or not deployed at all, hence not offering security benefits. We report on our studies of vulnerabilities and obstacles towards adoption of security mechanisms. We show how insecurity of Internet infrastructure foils security of defences for applications and provide example attacks against common systems.