The internet can be knocked offline without anyone breaking in. Arbor built a business by watching the roads, spotting the pileups, and moving the trouble upstream.
Behind every .com is a business built to avoid surprises. Verisign’s unusual power comes from keeping the internet’s address book dependable - and knowing when to leave it alone.
A spam trap became a network for protecting websites, running code, and policing AI traffic. The bargain is convenience - and dependence on the company in between.
A New Hampshire company made a business of helping everyone find everyone else online. Then an attack on its DNS network exposed how many famous websites shared the same front door.