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In some countries, like the U.S., it would be very hard to 'turn off' the Internet. In places like Egypt, though, with a limited number of Internet backbones and a handful of Domain Name Service (DNS) servers, it's easy. Here's how it appears the Egyptian government turned their country's Internet off.

Facebook may have found a way to break the Egyptian government's blockade of its website. The government there has been blocking several social media sites that demonstrators are using to organize and document protests. Today marks the third day of protests in Egypt calling for the ouster of long-time President Hosni Mubarak. Facebook is using lessons it learned in Tunisia, where the government allegedly hacked its Web site and tried to steal the passwords and personal information of protesters in that country. Jillian York of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society monitors the Arab world online and discusses efforts to get around governments' blockades of social media sites.

An interesting article about how a faulty undersea cable blacked out or slowed down the Internet for millions of users in India and Egypt. Can be used to help students understand the Internet infrastructure such as routing and backbones. It can also open up discussion on what services might be affected by such a problem.

"Hacktivists from the online group Anonymous have turned their attention to Yemen as part of their battle for greater net freedoms"

In a span of minutes just after midnight on Jan. 28, a technologically advanced, densely wired country with more than 20 million people online was essentially severed from the global Internet.