How can I destroy The Internet?

That was a question asked by a guy in Quora, I get frequent questions like that, but at times I fail to control the urge to not answer them. So below was my reply.

Actual Question:

The Internet: How can I destroy internet? Though I know most people would laugh it away but this thing came into my mind as I was learning about worms.

Answer:

Technically speaking, you cannot destroy Internet. PERIOD.

Below are few reasons why it is not possible.

- Internet is not a "thing"

- Internet is a highly distributed infrastructure without one single body controlling it, there are only governing bodies.

- The underlying protocols of Internet were designed to function efficiently with effectiveness, any device connected to Internet knows these protocols and language to communicate with other devices, that's the beauty of the OSI framework.

- The content in Internet is not easy to destroy, it is cached multiple times at multiple locations.

- There's no kill switch, because it simply is not possible.

But, you can slowdown the Internet, below are some reasons for that. But still, the slowness may not even be noticed anymore.

- Ageing network hardware and outdated technologies in the ISP backbone networks (The hyperspeed lanes of Internet)

- High density complex DDoS attacks on multiple targets.

- Cutting down of underwater backbone network cables of major ISPs (they would still have redundancy)

So ... ditch the idea :)