The reason we haven't solved DDoS attacks is because we're working on solving the problem at the wrong level. We're trying to solve the wrong problem. This vide

The reason we haven't solved DDoS attacks is because we're working on solving the problem at the wrong level. We're trying to solve the wrong problem. This video explains very clearly how this is the case: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z685OF-PS8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z685OF-PS8 Short(er) explanation: we no longer use the internet primarily for the purpose of communicating between two parties. But the infrastructure of the internet forces us to obtain data by having a conversation with a supposedly trusted party, even though a line of communication is not really what we want; we want a specific piece of data (an internet page, the latest exchange rate of USD to EUR, the ISO for the daily image of Ubuntu 12.04, etc.). It doesn't matter where we get it from (location is irrelevant), it only matters that it's the right data. Our use of the internet today is all about data. Yet, the infrastructure of the internet (TCP/IP) is location-centric; not data-centric. Data is shuttled between computers based, not on the data, but on the location of the computers. This creates the possibility of DoS attacks. The TCP/IP protocol is designed to efficiently route packages from a source to a destination, and a DoS attack simply uses this feature maliciously. When someone is hit by a DoS attack, the routers aiding in this are just following the rules of TCP/IP: routing packages to a destination. That's their job. What we need is a data-centric infrastructure. An infrastructure where data is not obtained via a connection to some location, but an infrastructure where data is simply accessed by sending a request for a specific piece of data into the cloud, and receiving the data from someone (and verifying that piece of data via its hash and signature). Instead of me obtaining the NY Times front page like this: * Wireless USB dongle sends out signal. Signal is picked up by my router (and everyone else's routers in near proximity, but all these other routers discard the signal). Router sends out a signal which my dongle (and all other routers/dongles pick up), but only my dongle uses this signal to obtain an IP address that the router knows. Over this connection I tell the router I want to connect to nytimes.com. Router connects to a server (name server) and asks it what the IP address is for nytimes.com. Router establishes a connection to nytimes.com, based on the IP it got from the nameserver. I send some commands over this connection where I ask for data, nytimes.com sends data, router hands it over to me. I now assume that I have the correct data - the front page of the NY Times, because some name sever said some IP address corresponds to nytimes.com, and this IP address sent me this data. I would obtain it like this: * Wireless USB dongle sends out a "data ID" for the NY Times front page. Any of the routers in my near vicinity that has a copy of the NY Times front page sends out a signal containing this data. My USB dongle pick up this data (and all other routers/dongles do so as well, the difference is that they are able to use this data as well, if they're looking for it). My computer checks if the data is signed using the public key of the New York Times. If the "date" field of the data is equal to or newer than, say, "now minus on hour", I accept this data as the NY Times' current front page. A DoS attack is easy in the former case, because there is a connection. Not so easy in the latter case, because routers don't willingly forward any data; they are data-aware and if they receive a copy of the NY Times that isn't signed by the NY Times' signature, it's discarded/ignored. If you want to understand it better, watch that video. It's an excellent talk. Really puts things in perspective.