Autonomous Systems
Autonomous Systems are collections of routers that deal with the same traffic and belong to the same organization. They are organized to make setting up routing tables for a group of computers easier, and provide a nice level of abstraction for routing services such as Border Gateway Protocol. Autonomous System's are assigned an Autonomous System Number from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
Background
The protocol connecting networks to make up the collective Internet is called the Border Gateway Protocol or BGP. With this protocol, comes some well known, but unsolved security vulnerabilities. [1] BGPs are made up of individual networks called autonomous systems and security vulnerabilities lie in the fact that each individual system is trusted to release accurate routing information. These networks can operate independently, under no authority, inciting self interest and competition. "The current success of the Internet and widespread adoption of BGP are evidence that this level of trust is not entirely unwarranted."[1]
Ethical Implications
Because each individual system is responsible for releasing accurate information, little mistakes that are made can have large consequences. Making a typing error when configuring a router can monopolize traffic intended for other networks. [1] People can also hijack maliciously as well. A documented example is when an autonomous system might display that it is the origin for IP addresses that it does not own, and this could spread to other networks. [1]
