BGP is a path vector routing protocol that is used to connect external organizations to each other. BGP hijacking occurs when someone impersonates a BGP speaker and starts communicating as if he were the normal BGP speakers. Bad routes can be injected without affecting service because they are filtered out. One method for preventing hijacking is using basic MD5 message authentication to authenticate that the users are who they claim to be. This does not provide a ton of protection and it is not the hardest thing to crack, but it is a start.
Michael Gibbs
@thecloudarchitect
CEO of Go Cloud Careers. Technology expert with 25 years of experience in networking, cloud computing, and IT security.