Internet Cartography using BGP and the Implications to Data Sovereignty

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Presented at FirstConferenceKualaLumpur 2018 by

Fyodor Yarochkin

We see the world in terms of geographical blocks and break these down further into countries; each country is sovereign and sets its own rules and regulations. These borders are more complicated when they involve the free flow of data. When put into the context of data protection regulations such as the US Patriot Act and GRDP, visualizing this flow of data – and how Internet routing affects Data Sovereignty and Data Protections in various countries - shows a very different view of our “virtual world” than our perceptions of the physical geopolitical one.The intention of this talk is to present a cartography of Internet connections by selected countries (US, Canada, UK, Germany, Russia, China, Australia, etc) showing how data is routed in and out of that country via Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) nodes (called ASNs). The presentation will illustrate the breadth at which data sovereignty because of the routing layer is not as cut and dry as currently perceived; the degree to which other countries’ data protection laws (such as GDRP) will affect other countries; the degree to which various Critical Infrastructures within these countries are subject to these issues, and finally, how significant attacks like BGP hijacking can affect data and network Sovereignty.