#BGP Routing

BGP ORIGIN attribute manipulation and its impact on the Internet

Cloudflare's research reveals that approximately 70% of BGP routes observed across the Internet have manipulated ORIGIN attributes, with transit providers intentionally altering this critical routing parameter to attract more traffic and revenue—a practice that violates RFC standards but has become normalized across the industry. This widespread manipulation undermines BGP's integrity and routing predictability, creating a competitive arms race where network operators must choose between compliance and competitiveness, directly impacting Internet infrastructure reliability and traffic engineering effectiveness. For IT leaders, this represents a fundamental risk to network security and performance that demands organizational attention to BGP security practices and potential involvement in industry efforts to restore protocol integrity.