Why is IPv6 better? One Surprising Reason!

IPv6 the new Internet Protocol we all use as we Google something, or read a website,  has all these advanced new technical attributes, carries larger messages, and is more secure. Any list of attributes that the new Internet Protocol (IPv6) has over the old Internet Protocol (IPv4) will include:

1. Ability to pick an address from thin air (SLAAC)
2. Ability to change addresses frequently (Privacy Addressing)
3. Ability to belong to many networks simultaneously, with a unique address on each.
4. Ability to easily combine multi-enterprise networks without readdressing.

I will spend a few minutes on point 3, "Ability to belong to many Networks."

Using IPv4 based networks, allows for one connection to be active. So, if we are on a computer that connects to two networks, say a company network, and a public network (like our email), we constantly have to sign off from one network and sign on to the other network.

 

IPv6, the new Internet Network protocol, allows for many, many networks to be 'open' on your computer, or mobile phone, at the same time. Great! So what?

  

The Arab Spring, Only possible because of IPv6.

I just finished reading  "Shaping South East Europe's Security Community for the Twenty-First Century" by S. Cross, published by Springer., 224 pages. 

Starting on page 50, the author lays out how the Arab Spring, starting in 2011, would not have been possible with a simple IPv4 network. Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks could avoid government discovery, and shutdowns, because these large companies had adapted to IPv6. It is that simple. Hostile governments engaged in all kinds of cyber attacks and Facebook was up. Always.  Facebook users could dare to be online, and no government could reach their ID.

 

Yes, of course, it is possible that governments can unleash extremely nasty surveillance on their citizens.

 

That is where organizations, such as ISOC, fight the fight for an open Internet, for all.

But, with the address restrictions of IPv4, that is not possible. The government will control the IPv4 space, but can't control the IPv6 space.