How the internet’s innocent beginnings shaped its global impact
The internet was born in a time when collaboration and openness were prioritized, driven by a group of visionaries, academics, and tech enthusiasts. They sought to create a global platform to democratize access to information.
At its core, the internet was designed to be a free exchange of knowledge, pushed forward by the hope of a connected world. Its fundamental infrastructure, developed decades ago, mirrored this ethos—designed for reliability and accessibility rather than security.
While this openness fostered unprecedented global collaboration, it laid the groundwork for vulnerabilities that modern-day bad actors exploit.
As the internet evolved, so too did its user base. The network, once the domain of researchers and educators, is now a complex web that integrates governments, corporations, financial institutions, and billions of individuals.
The sophistication within these systems has grown, but so have the risks. With everything from personal banking to sensitive government data moving online, the stakes have never been higher. What was once a tool for information sharing now handles global financial markets, medical data, and critical infrastructure.
Today’s internet is a playground for hackers and bad actors
Today’s internet operates using outdated protocols that are easily exploited. Malicious actors have seized the opportunity to leverage these vulnerabilities for financial gain, espionage, and disruption.
Network infrastructure itself was not designed to fend off these sophisticated threats. Sensitive data such as financial transactions, medical records, and corporate communications all travel through the same channels that hackers exploit daily.
Hackers employ increasingly advanced methods, including phishing, malware, and man-in-the-middle attacks, to bypass defenses and compromise systems.
While large corporations and governments have the resources to implement complex security solutions, many small businesses and individual users remain highly vulnerable. Sophisticated cyber threats have outpaced the average user’s ability to defend against them, leaving billions of users exposed.
For businesses, this means costly data breaches, loss of customer trust, and regulatory penalties. For governments, it means the risk of national security threats. Still, the internet’s underlying protocols—such as BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)—remain unchanged since their inception, offering limited protection at the routing level.
SSL and VPNs aren’t enough to keep you safe anymore
Many believe that encryption technologies like SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) are enough to protect sensitive data, but these tools only offer partial solutions.
SSL and VPNs encrypt the data itself, protecting it from being read during transmission—they still rely on legacy internet protocols that are fundamentally vulnerable. These protocols, designed decades ago for open communication, let attackers target the routing mechanisms that direct traffic across the internet.
SSL can secure a user’s session with a website, and a VPN can create a secure tunnel between two endpoints, but both are ultimately limited by the vulnerabilities in how traffic is routed.
Encryption only protects the data payload, leaving the network’s infrastructure exposed. Hackers can exploit these routing mechanisms to intercept, redirect, or block traffic without ever needing to decrypt the content itself. This opens the door to a range of attacks, including BGP hijacking, where attackers reroute traffic to malicious servers without the user’s knowledge.
SCION, a revolutionary architecture changing internet security
SCION (Scalability, Control, and Isolation on Next-Generation Networks) was developed by Adrian Perrig at ETH Zurich as a response to the increasing security challenges facing the modern internet.
Unlike traditional protocols, SCION gives users control over how their data travels across the network. It offers a way to dictate secure routes for data transmission, completely independent of the broader, more vulnerable internet infrastructure.
“Through isolating network paths and making sure only authorized users can see and access them, SCION offers a comprehensive alternative to legacy protocols.”
This architecture eliminates the reliance on open internet routing mechanisms, letting users pre-define and manage specific routes for their data. Security comes from encryption and from control over the path itself.
SCION is designed to prevent unauthorized actors from accessing or even detecting the existence of these routes, making it far harder for hackers to target traffic.
SCION powers the foundation of Swiss financial security
A great example of SCION’s practical application is the Swiss interbank clearing system, which processes billions of dollars in transactions. This system, which could be considered the nerve center of Switzerland’s financial infrastructure, now runs entirely on SCION.
The decision to adopt SCION was driven by the need for absolute security and reliability in financial transactions.
Leveraging SCION, Switzerland’s banks can make sure their data travels only along pre-approved, secure routes, away from the open internet. This isolates critical financial traffic from the risk of interception or redirection, something not achievable with traditional routing protocols.
Dictating routing policies down to the level of specific nodes, and combined with its strong security framework, SCION is particularly well-suited for sectors where trust and reliability are priorities.
Anapaya: The startup bringing SCION’s power to your network
Anapaya, a spin-off company from the SCION research project, is responsible for commercializing the SCION protocol. It brings the technology to market through devices—both physical and virtual—that facilitate the secure routing of sensitive information.
The devices use predefined rules to control where and how data flows between nodes. Companies can customize these rules based on specific traffic types, hosts, and destinations, making sure sensitive information is routed securely and efficiently.
Anapaya’s solution is designed to work with existing infrastructure, meaning companies don’t need to replace their current networks to take advantage of SCION. This makes it a practical option for enterprises seeking to buttress their security without the heavy investment that typically comes with building private networks or implementing MPLS lines.
With Anapaya’s technology, organizations can implement SCION and immediately begin reaping the security benefits while maintaining operational flexibility.
Why SCION’s security is a breakthrough for the internet
One of SCION’s standout features is its ability to make entire networks invisible to unauthorized users. For example, a company with multiple offices connected via a software-defined network (SDN) can ensure that only these locations share routing information.
To anyone outside of this pre-defined network, these offices simply don’t exist. It’s a radical departure from how traditional networks function, where routing information is visible to anyone with access to the internet’s core protocols.
Hiding the existence of network nodes helps SCION make it impossible for hackers to target systems they cannot see—giving organizations a major security advantage, as bad actors can’t exploit what they cannot detect.
Even if they know a service exists, without access to its routing information, they cannot interact with it, much less compromise it. This control over visibility is a critical advantage for sectors where privacy and confidentiality are key, such as finance, healthcare, and government.
The network security market is now bigger than ever
The sheer scale of the network security market reflects the growing threats that businesses and governments face today. The market is projected to reach $238 billion by 2024, making it larger than even the cancer treatment industry, which is valued at $223 billion in the same period.
While cancer remains one of the most challenging human health issues, the internet’s vulnerabilities have grown so widespread that protecting against cyber threats is now a larger industry than one of humanity’s most important medical challenges.
For companies, this is a strong reminder of the resources needed to protect digital assets.
As the digital economy grows, so does the need to secure the data and systems on which it depends. SCION’s role in this growing market underscores the need for innovative, scalable solutions that go beyond traditional security measures to address today’s more complex threats.
Old-school network security doesn’t cut it anymore
In the face of escalating cyber threats, some companies are turning to physical network security measures, such as laying private cables or investing in MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) connections.
While these solutions provide a high level of control over network traffic, they’re often impractical and prohibitively expensive. Not all organizations have the resources or ability to install private infrastructure in every location where they operate, particularly when they need to connect to external networks like government systems or other businesses.
Despite these investments, physical network isolation doesn’t fully protect companies from the vulnerabilities of the public internet.
Even if a business controls its own infrastructure, the moment it connects to external networks, it is exposed to the same risks as everyone else. MPLS connections might secure traffic between specific endpoints, but they cannot shield a company from the vulnerabilities that come from interacting with broader networks.
The hidden danger of relying on the internet’s ancient protocols
Most internet privacy measures today depend on outdated routing protocols like BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) and rely on encryption to secure the data itself. While encryption does protect content from being read by unauthorized parties, it doesn’t address the underlying problem of how that content travels across the internet.
Routing protocols such as BGP, designed when the internet was in its infancy, are open to exploitation by bad actors who can manipulate traffic paths. This creates a serious vulnerability, as hackers can intercept or reroute data without breaking its encryption. BGP hijacking, for instance, lets attackers redirect internet traffic to malicious destinations.
Despite the sophistication of modern encryption methods, these routing vulnerabilities persist, making it possible for attackers to disrupt or intercept communications. SCION addresses this by shifting the focus from merely securing the data to securing the path that data takes, eliminating the risks associated with legacy routing protocols.
How SCION beats traditional networks without new infrastructure
SCION stands apart by giving organizations granular control over their network routing policies, meaning that companies can define exactly who has access to their services and data.
Through setting strict policies, businesses can make sure only authorized users from specific geographic locations or market segments can connect to their networks. This goes beyond traditional encryption, which only protects the data itself, and addresses the larger issue of controlling network access.
SCION’s routing isolation feature allows businesses to lock down their networks to a level that simply isn’t possible with traditional internet protocols.
Unauthorized users, even if they know a network exists, won’t have the routing information necessary to access it. This drastically reduces the risk of cyberattacks, particularly in high-risk industries such as finance and healthcare.
SCION blends private network security and internet flexibility
One of SCION’s most practical advantages is that it doesn’t require companies to overhaul their existing infrastructure. There’s no need for new cabling, routers, or other physical network investments.
SCION works with the current internet infrastructure, making it a cost-effective solution for companies looking to improve their security posture without incurring the massive expense of building a private network.
Simply adjusting how traffic is routed, SCION provides the security of private networks with the operational flexibility of the open internet. This makes SCION particularly appealing to businesses with global operations that need secure, reliable connectivity without the logistical and financial burden of maintaining a separate physical network.
Final thoughts
As the digital world continues to evolve, a key question remains: How secure is your business from the ever-growing threats lurking online? With SCION offering a new way to control and secure data routes, can your brand afford to rely on outdated protocols, or is it time to rethink your network strategy for a safer future?
