Black holes hit cyberspace as well as outer space

Cyber-researchers say you may not need to blame your computer when your mouse icon starts spinning its gears while surfing the Internet. Rather, you may just have hit a cyber-black hole. (If you’re under 40, you don’t know a serious recession.)

Researchers looked for computers that can be reached from some, but not all, of the Internet.

“We were astounded when we did an initial four-month study and we saw how many problems there were,” Ethan Katz-Bassett told LiveScience. “It seemed infeasible that this could be happening so often. They’re definitely more common than we thought.”

If nothing else, it makes a great excuse at work, right?

“Boss, that report I had due? It got eaten in cyberspace.”

More seriously, the group of researchers has developed a map of the Internet, with the black holes, in the hopes of helping ISPs find problems, improve service and such. Because it needs the help.

“I think we would like it to be more reliable,” Katz-Bassett said. “It’s orders of magnitude less reliable than the telephone network right now. I think it should be pretty possible to get it closer.”

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