Information Society Watch

February 26, 2008, BBC News

The attempt by Pakistan's telecoms to block YouTube over a video clip allegedly portraying Islam in bad light resulted in a near global blackout of the site for a few hours. The incident throws light on the vulnerabilities and risks that arise out of the interconnectedness of cyber society. The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority apparently used IP hijacking -- which involves taking over a web site's unique address by corrupting the Internet's routing tables, which direct the flow of data around the world -- to reroute traffic to YouTube through erroneous Internet protocols. The incident is reported to have been a simple mistake by an engineer at Pakistan Telecom.

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