Is it possible to shutdown all the whole world computers.

Replies

• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  mohit007kumar00

  hi CEans,
  Is it possible to shutdown all the whole world computers connected through internet ?
  

  No, its not possible. Unless the administrators of Individual machines agree to it.
• 

  vik001ind

  why not....!
• 

  jhbalaji

  Yes possible but you need to Own all computers in this wordl ! 😀
  LOL!
• 

  durga ch

  only those which are connected to internet, there is chance of doing a soft shut down
  Otherwise how's that possible?
• 

  MaRo

  Unless it's an alien attack, h-bomb, solar flares or other form of natural disaster, never worry Internet will be okay.
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  I repeat, it is NOT possible.
  
  [PS: Otherwise, it would have been done by now]
• 

  Anil Jain

  It is possible.
  
  However, internet is under the strict surveillance of administrator.
  
  Akamai and other interent brodcaster owners keeps an close eye on hacking. If in any case somebody write a program to hack all the internet broadcaster across the globe he can fire a command for soft shutdown.
  
  @ Biggi - Anything which is not done by now, doesn't mean that it can not be done ever. If this will be case world will come to an hault and innovations will stop at all. 😁,
  
  Aplogies pro, if I am sounding offensive.
  
  -CB
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  @CrazyBoy: Yes, I'm aware of it. There's one simple way of shutting down all the computers in the worlds - by stopping power supply. Let's think practically; is it 'really' possible to shut-down all the computers in the world? Wondering what this thread is doing under Technical Discussion Section.
• 

  Anil Jain

  @ Big B - You are missing something here.
  
  It is written is it possible to shut down all the computer connected on internet. I guess, you will agree that soft shutdown of a computer from internet is possible?
  
  If one computer can be shut down because of a virus (which will initiate soft-shutdown) all the computer can be as well.
  
  I will give you an example in 2004 hackers did a attack on Akamai (Russian hackers attacked Akamai servers) and hacked all the major websites (including google, microsoft, yahoo) were down for 2 hours. Similarly if somebody will hack all 6 servers of Akamai (that covers the whole world's internet connectivity), its not impossible to initiate a soft whutdown for all the computers trying to connect web.
  
  -CB
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  No, I don't believe shutdown of ANY computer connected to the Internet is possible. (Why am I commenting on this thread? 😛 )
• 

  optimystix

  @crazyboy
  i guess you are being a bit too optimistic in here 😛
  
  as biggie said, it is not 'really' possible in the sense that it will never happen. Though mathematically you can argue that there is always a possibility/ probability for it to happen. And if we were to think mathematically then the answer is obvious, then why ask such a question and spend time answering it ? I understand that for a particular situation there may be infinite possibilities but it is a fact that not all of those ever happen. An argument into this will take us into the concept of parallel universes and it is not a topic needed to be discussed here.
  
  the question is that will be possible for a real human to do shutdown all computers in the world in real time !
  I think NO and this is 'cos :
  
  

  1. There can be a possibility (again acc to probability theory) of shutting down all pcs on the network by infecting it with some particularly coded malware. But again this is hypothetical. There's no practical possibility of this happening (antivirus heuristics to the rescue;-)) as that would mean all the security experts around the world lose their jobs 😛
  2. moreover, about the Akamai thing, I think its absurd talking about it here. Hackers do not shut down computers, do they? They had hacked through the DNS and has stopped people from accessing the websites, thats it. The severs were not down by any chance, only the routes were lost. The computers were all up and running, only that one could surf their favourite sites.

  
  And biggie, a well targeted attack could knock out a computer or two ;-). As soon as one gets remote access to the target pc(a few in millions is highly possible), one could run a pre coded script file to shut down the pc.
  
  these are just my own thought. Not meant to offend anyone. Counter arguments are always welcome😀
• 

  vik001ind

  Every damn thing is possible! highly unlikely doesn't means it is not possible or it will never occur. We have seen numerous examples where limits are broken & human imaginations were challenged. Various estimation were proved wrong.
  The technology grows exponentially each second, so the security & its defying forces. Number of internet users increase everyday and so the professionals working in this field. Its easy to understand that if we would use a technology of 10 yrs ago, we may get hacked by a novice. As the progress is increasing exponentially, its possible that we may enter an era where the successful attacks can be generated within a day or two of release of the software or OS. These things are very likely thats why US is now more focused in building its cyber defence.
  @optimix If all pcs shuts down don't imply that all security prof. will lose there jobs, I feel that there is more chances that such situation will occur from defensive purposes (like confining a virus infection) rather than a well design attack.
• 

  The_Small_k

  Wow what a discussion.
• 

  rishi0922

  By being funny a bit i am trying to make this possible ......
  By creating a shortcut of shutdown (SHUTDOWN -s -t 01) in a very famous lottery and spreading this message of lottery to the whole world that at a particular time this lottery will open so everyone of the world will be waiting for this very eagerly and at the time lottery starts everyone clicks and the computer of the whole world shut down...........lol.....
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  Morningdot Hablu

  Hey try this "shutdown -i" any you can able to shutdown all the PC's connected through that network.
  You just have to browse them and select manually.
• 

  Morningdot Hablu

  Sorry buddy i misplaced a wrong command now i edited my post.
  You can also use "shutdown -s -m \\computername -t" to shutdown a targeted pc.
• 

  silverscorpion

  @Mohit: I think shutdown -i can only be used in LAN's and not over the internet. Even in a LAN, you'll need admin rights to shutdown other computers connected to the LAN.
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  Morningdot Hablu

  @Ss ya you are right!!
  But is it necessary to be an administrator in order to do this task ?
• 

  anandkumarjha

  soft shut down is possible for the computers connected through the internet...