Y2K on Internet
Need for Immediate and Concerted Action
Thank you very much for your kind introduction, Mr. Chairman. Is Internet ready to smoothly roll over to January 1 2000? We donft know yet. Although there are certain works being done, and most of the technologies that make up the Internet are of little trouble, we must admit that the awareness on Y2K challenge among the Internet industry, as well as policy makers concerned are quite lower than most other industry sectors. Since Internet is the most complex system in the world, it is very difficult to obtain a clear view of how it will cope with Y2K-related problems. We need immediate and concerted action, now. ---------- So where are the problems? The first one is awareness. The level of awareness among Internet industry is, to be honest, not high enough. Since US Government has a good policy of NOT regulating the Internet, FCC, as far as I know, is not officially reaching US ISPs for Y2K matters - unlike telecommunications companies. And there are more than 6000 ISPs in US only. The same is true in Japan. Our ministry of post and telecommunications has twice conducted survey on Y2K readiness on telecommunications companies - more than 5000, but they have not surveyed any ISP specific questions. There are 3,300 ISPs in Japan and the ministry have only reached top 100 ISPs to check if proper works are being done. The rest, 3200 are left untouched. ---------- The Internet Y2K Campaign (www.nety2k.org) was started in December 1998 and to date, 13 organizations are participating in including:Several ISP associations in US, Asia Pacific and UK, and the Internet Society (ISOC). But this is very much a voluntary effort -- no full-time person is working on this campaign at all. We organized an informal meeting in February in Washington DC. jointly-hosted by several members of the campaign, and Center for Strategic and International Studies, Center for Global Communication of Japan, and Asia Networks Research. I wrote an informal report about this meeting and I can give it to you later if you need one. Representatives from the White House, Mr. McConnell, the head of US Delegation here today, US Commerce Department and FCC, Japanese MPT, NTT, KDD, experts from Y2K Working group of Internet Engineering Task Force(IETF), ISPs including PSI, UUNet, Teligent, and some vendors all joined.E-commerce Association and American Express came since they have concern on e-commerce functions. No one in the room knew if the global 13 DNS root servers, the very heart of Internet address system, is ready or not, at all. We had little specific information other than IETF report on protocol. We could not reach consensus on how to proceed. ---------- I myself became more concerned out of this meeting. I must say that the US government policy of not regulating the Internet seems playing a very negative role in this Y2K issue. I contacted Mr. Elliot Maxwell of DoC, in charge of Internet Policy in US Government, that they should check the DNS root servers, since despite their policy of NOT regulating the Internet, they have contract with ICANN and NSI for the operation of these servers thus they are also responsible. APIA decided to take more proactive action, starting at the regional Internet meeting called APRICOT, in March here in Singapore. We had heated discussion on some technical issues of Internet in relation to Y2K. We also organized another BoF at APEC Tel WG Meeting in March in Miyazaki, Japan. There we made efforts that Internet be included in the agenda of this APEC Y2K Week, since there has been no public discussion about the Internet Y2K issue before. I want to ask you now, how many of you have heard or read about this subject today for the first time? Could you raise your hand? We also started to discuss possible eRoad showf to send experts to many developing countries in Asia to help the ISPs and NICS to conduct Y2K preparations. ---------- Let me touch upon technical areas now. There are certain areas in technology that require definite works to fix Y2K bugs - and Internet is NO exception. All the technical components - hardware, software and embedded systems used for Internet operation must be tested and proven Y2K Compliant. ---------- But it often challenges the clieches. They say gUnix has no problem.h It is true that UNIX itself can work OK till 2038. But most machines use real-time clock and BIOS, outside UNIX system that may have Y2K problems. Many UNIX Vendors are providing software patches to fix these problems. Unless you apply these software remediation, the system will not make proper date conversion from 1999 to 2000. They say gInternet protocols do not depend on date/time values thus it will cause no problemh. IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) Working Group on Y2K protocol has worked over 2 years and came up with a detailed report saying that they found only 3 or 4 minor problems, but they can be easily fixed and will not cause any major trouble at all. But Mr. Phil Nesser, who chaired these efforts said in the Washington Meeting that it will only guarantee the protocol level, not the implementations by the vendors nor infrastructure operation by operators. And he added that time is running out. They also say Routers are no problem. The Cisco routers with IOS version 11 is fine, but not version 10, which should be upgraded. There is no mention on the Cisco website what is going to happen if they do not upgrade - just saying that customers would take their own risk. Other clich_ is - Internet has inherent design principle that have more redundancy. Maybe so. But no one really knows what is going to happen if mutually connected computers start to malfunction at the same time - whether these problems will be re-transmitted and amplified thus causing cascade effect, or the other way around. Engineers often say eOh, that is NOT the Internet problem - itfs BIOS or UNIX problem - and do not take responsibilities. I said ewho is taking care of the whole?f It seems no one. ---------- So what must be done technically? The Network must conduct _ inventory checking, assessment and triage, remediation, testing, and contingency plan _ all the standard 5-step procedures required for critical infrastructure industry. Major ISPs in Japan are working hard to prepare, but they are afraid that many smaller ISPs or web-hosting companies may not be doing well and may cause big trouble for global Internet operations. At least you will receive much more traffic and burden as a result. ---------- We find that the amount of preparedness is directly related to the size of the entity - large ISPs are more prepared but small ISPs are surprisingly not. SO who must work on these? All Network Information Centers, NICS, where they handle country domain name servers must prepare Y2K ready. All exchange points, national and International should test their inter-connection. All ISPS, and non-commercial Internet such as Research and Education networks, must also conduct the 5 steps. They include access points and leased lines. All popular sites, such as Yahoo, newspaper or other information providers, e-commerce sites such as Amazon.com, AsianTrade resources must also be Y2K compliant. Many web-hosting companies, where large corporate or government web sites are often maintained must be ready. ---------- The good news is that major ISPs or online service providers, such as America Online or PSI Net or NTT or KDD are reporting that they are working on it and getting ready. (Not complete yet, though) on their web sites. Global DNS Root servers will be tested and the information will be published again online hopefully soon. Some Exchange points such as the largest in Japan, NSPIXP2 will be tested and the result will be disclosed. ---------- Information sharing. I think there is no need to emphasize the importance of Information Sharing or Disclosure to the audience here today. ---------- But to the Internet Industry and Internet community people are not quite aware of it - to gain public confidence, trust from investors. So, we plan to work on making technical guidelines, or handbooks, to help those who want to work on to share the information. We are often proud of the openness of the Internet. That is the very reason why Internet could grow in exponential rate in light speed. We should apply this same good tradition to Y2K issues. ---------- We see much coordinated works and actions are in need. It should be locally done - in a city like Tokyo, Hong Kong, or Singapore, ISPs should work together, share information, make sure their interconnection is all right. Talk to the customers, large and small, teach them how to test their routers and servers. Actions in national levels are also essential. NICs is one area. Regional efforts is also important - make sure the connection between Japan and Korea, between Japan and Singapore, or between Australia and Vietnam must be OK. Global coordination - including help less developed countries and economies. DNS Root servers. This should be said, I must say, 2 years ago among Internet gurus so that I do not have to give you this kind of talk today. ---------- Then, is it too late? Is time running out? The answer is, No. Most of the software applications used to run the Internet today are so-called off-the-shell, ready-made ones by vendors. Unlike banks or other corporate applications where custom-made programs require separate efforts to find date values in the millions of program codes. If the vendors let their customers, ISPs or corporate users, say, reach out, or the users themselves find out the importance, then fixing the bugs are relatively easy. Yes, we can fix them - mostly, at least. ---------- I want urge the government people, here today, that you have a role to play. That is to encourage the private sector, or non-profit operators, to make their network or functions ready. You are responsible for social infrastructure, for the public interest, right? Unlike the US (or Japan), many Asian countries governments are trying to regulate the Internet. Singapore is a very good example. And I think it is not so bad - when it comes to Y2K. Internet is part of our social infrastructure. We need our e-mail to be delivered in time, to business partners in Silicon Valley, or we want to receive orders in Malaysia from US manufactures. We want our website to be accessible from anywhere in the world. We must recognize how much public interest resides on Internet today, perhaps much more than you may think. ---------- APIA want to propose: To organize Internet Y2K Road Show to send experts to many Asian countries, to raise awareness among Internet industry and government policy makers, to provide technical assistance and advises to ISPs engineers, to organize workshops, for that matter, and to help share information each other. We also want to propose and encourage to set-up Internet Y2K Coordination Centers. Even we work hard and can fix most of the bugs, we still need to prepare the worst-case scenario. IF some ISP or website find operational problem on Dec 31st, this center should act as support center to help overcome the problems. We want to set-up this function in several locale in Asia, ideally at least one in each country. But that is a demanding task to carry out within less than 9 month! ---------- We are Internet Trade Association, in Asia and Pacific region. We are ready to organize Y2K Roads how, and setup Y2K Coordination Centers. We are ready to talk to our members - some ISPs, Telcos and Vendors. But that is not enough at all. We need your support. Financial and policy support. We need your cooperation. Many Asian ISPs are, as you all know, suffering from financial crisis, burden of currency devaluation, especially. They do not have financial luxury any more. We know it is individual responsibility, first, but we also need your help, cooperation to organize and coordinate these activities. The time is really running out. And we need your support. For further action, please contact to APIA at our website, or send me e-mail to:izumi@anr.org Thank you very much for your kind attention. We look forward to working with you together. Back to English HOME page.
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