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Third Undersea Cable Cut

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the someone-doesn't-like-connect-the-dots dept.

Many readers are reporting that another undersea fiber optic cable has been cut, apparently caused by another wayward anchor. It looks like Iran has completely lost Internet connectivity."

34 of 655 comments (clear)

  1. Third cut? by Eevee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Once is accident.

    Twice is coincidence.

    Thrice is enemy action.

    1. Re:Third cut? by KublaiKhan · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yes, it does seem suspicious, especially since it's Iran--a country that's in the news a lot lately, and with whom communication may be rather important.

      If this is followed by reports of various despicable actions in Iran which cannot be verified due to the lack of communication, then it would be even more suspicious.

      --
      In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
      A stately pleasure dome decree
    2. Re:Third cut? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Last night while sitting in my chair
      I pinged a host that wasn't there
      It wasn't there again today
      The host resolved to NSA.

    3. Re:Third cut? by bigdavex · · Score: 5, Funny

      A communications disruption can mean only one thing - invasion.

      --
      -Dave
    4. Re:Third cut? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      yes funny. does not slashdot realize we have had a sub that can do just that for decades?

      http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:3fK6ZB19WjIJ:msl1.mit.edu/furdlog/docs/cnn/2005-02-18_cnn_optical_taps.pdf+fiber+submarine+cia&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us&client=opera

      keep laughing guys and gals why the spies among us earn their salary. :-P

    5. Re:Third cut? by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Funny

      If this is followed by reports of various despicable actions in Iran which cannot be verified due to the lack of communication, then it would be even more suspicious. Meanwhile a U.S. effort to bring aid to the Kurds has been proven successful. "Operation Dredge Massive Underwater Machete" has stated that its peaceful goals have been accomplished and will slowly pass the rest of Iran's coast in a return to its base in India.
      --
      My work here is dung.
    6. Re:Third cut? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      At least now we know they cant buy parts for their nuclear weapons online anymore.

    7. Re:Third cut? by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Interesting

      One in Marseilles, one in Suez. Not the same ruddy deal. The new break is on the FLAG cable - in yest another place: 56 kms from Dubai on a segment between the UAE and Oman.

      You seem to be a knee-jerk skeptic, who's "Nothing to see here, move along" displays not - as you presume - intelligence, but rather a susceptibility to Jedi mind-tricks.

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    8. Re:Third cut? by hardburn · · Score: 5, Funny

      Whatever it is, it probably literally translates to "bad movie".

      --
      Not a typewriter
    9. Re:Third cut? by Kompressor · · Score: 5, Funny

      We all know that ironyblind people can see irony correctly underwater while those who have correct perception cannot.

      I've never heard that before. My understanding is that ironyblindness is due to an absence or shortage of irony receptor cells in the brain. I don't see how that could give someone better comprehension underwater.

      OTOH, I have heard that irony blind people are worse at spotting camouflaged humor. I presume that's because they percieve things DIFFERENTLY than the non-ironyblind person who created the camouflage.
      There, fixed that for ya ;-)
      --
      kmem russian roulette: Aquillar> dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/kmem bs=1 count=1 seek=$RANDOM
    10. Re:Third cut? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      If you're trying to make some nukes
      Don't bother putting up your dukes
      Subs with scissors of nations crossed
      Will ensure *** CARRIER LOST ***

    11. Re:Third cut? by bigdavex · · Score: 5, Informative

      Who the hell thinks this comment is funny?

      I hope that people who have seen Star Wars think it's funny. I'm sorry if I offended you.

      I don't support my country's Middle East policy, for the record.

      --
      -Dave
    12. Re:Third cut? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Now they'll just have to phone/fax Haliburton

    13. Re:Third cut? by jollyreaper · · Score: 5, Funny

      A communications disruption can mean only one thing - invasion. Really? I thought it meant they're using Comcast.
      --
      Kwisatz Haderach
      Sell the spice to CHOAM
      This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
    14. Re:Third cut? by onepoint · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Color Blind... you don't want it, nor the benefits of it.

      My dad has it, and he See's everything in grays ( well that's the color he calls it ), he can spot the difference in the color black from 4 different producers. my dad work for the government back in the 60's and 70's and he was consistently seeing things. his job was to point out "problems in photographs" so if an image was out of balance, he would just circle it and hand it up the chain of command.

      Some of the more interesting assignments my dad disclosed to me.
      1) military cloth review and rejection for top brass ( 3 and 4 star level )
      2) Paint color review ( hundred of gallons at time )
      3) standardise the color of military traffic lights on domestic bases, so many colors of red variations and green, he got it down to 2 of each and let someone else pick it out.
      4) camo netting review at heights exceeding 10,000 feet
      plus a lot of stuff that I'm not sure about but I saw on the table as a kid

      on of my fathers biggest problems were carpet's, your regular gray carpet might have 800+ threads that were woven to make it, just imagine walking along a carpet, having something that looked like a slice in the carpet ( or a bug ), only to realise that it's just a bad color thread. another problem were berger kings and McDonald's. until the late 80's there were certain ones my dad would eat at, since to him all the plastic chairs and tables ( at the respective franchise ) coloring was similar and color association was rather strong with him, so bad experiences with certain colors would extend into his personal life.

      he never had a chance to become a pilot, but when he worked for the military he always (come hell or high water) from take-off to landing was in the co-pilot chair. how he pulled that stunt was a secret that I have never asked, but he got away with it.

      the color of scotch always made him ill until i found out about the first time he got drunk ( color association ).

      my dad had amazing wood skills when it came to selecting wood for his carvings, wood would just be right and the grain would always just be perfect for what he wanted to do.

      Concrete ageing, that's something my father was a perfectionist at, he could look at a concrete job that was recently poured, tell it's age and by shit luck ( or some magic ) tell if it was cured correctly.

      people with this disorder are different, but none the less, thier skills at other things are sometimes exceeding.

      --
      if you see me, smile and say hello.
    15. Re:Third cut? by Dun+Malg · · Score: 5, Interesting

      When was the last time you heard of an underwater cable being cut? Never? Yeah, me neither. Then, boom! 3 or 4 in a few weeks. It happens about once a year or so, judging by a quick Google news search.

      Jun 2007, Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua, broken undersea cable
      Dec 2006, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan, earthquake damages cable
      Jun 2005, Pakistan loses internet connectivity due to a broken undersea cable.
      Jun 2004, Hong Kong and Vietnam see internet service disruption due to broken undersea fiber
      Nov 2003, UK sees connectivity trouble due to broken transatlantic cable
      Nov 2001, Singapore...same
      Feb 2001, China....same

      Really, the 2 of the 3 cables that were cut were only noteworth because BOTH were damaged. The FLAG and SeaWeMe-4 cable outages have forced European traffic to go WEST to get to most of Asia. Had only one been lost, it would not have been nearly as noteworthy. Cables go out all the time. The fact that two outages coincide ain't really enough to make it a conspiracy. Call me when the bombs are being dropped.
      --
      If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
  2. Iran hasn't lost connectivity by anotherone · · Score: 5, Informative

    Iran hasn't lost connectivity, the specific router that Internet Traffic Report is checking has lost connectivity.

    Even the University that hosts the router that ITR is checking is still up: http://www.iust.ac.ir/

    --
    Username taken, please choose another one.
    1. Re:Iran hasn't lost connectivity by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 5, Funny

      The countries internet connection is hanging by a thread, and you slashdot their university. Smooth move, asshole.

      --
      -1 Uncomfortable Truth
    2. Re:Iran hasn't lost connectivity by mrboyd · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Iran is still on the grid, as is all of the ME. I am still in Dubai (where the 3rd cable has been cut). I received a communication from our ISP (DU/ aka DIC Telecom) telling us about this new cut and that they had to reroute us again. I couldn't notice more slow down in web browsing but bittorrent traffic seems to have been blocked. Could it be a preemptive measure? We live behind a big firewall similar to the one in china here. I would be surprised if they decided not to plead like the Egyptians and just block some of the crap we download to save the bandwidth.

  3. When will they learn.... Oblig quote by hermit_tries_virtual · · Score: 5, Funny

    Fry: What's happening?

    Dr. Zoidberg: All 6,000 hulls have been breached!

    Fry: Oh, the fools! If only they'd built it with 6,001 hulls! When will they learn?

  4. Re:Third cut? do i smell Conspiracy BS? by Bloke+down+the+pub · · Score: 5, Funny

    I am too willing to accept that something is fishy
    It's in the bloody sea, what do you expect?
    --
    It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
  5. "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Understand the procedure now? Just stop a few of their machines, their telephones, their lawnmowers, throw them into darkness for a few hours, and then sit back and watch the pattern."

    "This pattern is always the same?"

    "With few variations. They pick the most dangerous enemy they can find.... and it's themselves. All we need do is sit back and watch."

    "I take it that this place...this Maple Street...is not unique."

    "By no means. Their world is full of Maple Streets, and we'll go from one to the other and let them destroy themselves."

    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  6. Cloverfield 2 by Lurker2288 · · Score: 5, Funny

    So let's see, three cables in three days...that puts the monster in Manhattan by what, next Thursday, give or take a few isolated fishing vessels between here and there? Better charge up those handicams, kids!

  7. In related news by ObiWanStevobi · · Score: 5, Funny

    Office productivity throughout the Middle East has risen sharply.

  8. The Great White Backhoe by xleeko · · Score: 5, Funny


    This reclusive giant of the deep, the Great White Backhoe, spends most of its life in quiet solitude. But, once every seven years, as if called by some unknown force, these gentle beasts gather in great numbers to feast upon the cables of the ocean floor.
    </french-accent>

  9. Maybe the NSA has to cut the cable to tap into it by mgh02114 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The locations where many of the recent cable cuts have occurred (China, Pakistan, Palestine/Egypt, and now Iran) is highly suspicious. I suspect that the U.S. intelligence community is using a sub to tap into the fiberoptic line to capture all of the data. Unlike copper lines, they probably can't splice into glass fiberoptic lines without breaking the circuit for a while.

    1) Cut the line somewhere roughly, so it clearly looks like an accident
    2) Somewhere else far away, splice into the line using a sub, so the NSA can capture all the data (or even potentially alter it in transit)
    3) Let the commercial communication providers fix the obvious break
    4) Profit! (at least in terms of intelligence gathering and cyber-war capability

  10. Re:Can anyone enlighten me? by mikael · · Score: 5, Informative

    The BBC has an article with a cross section of an undersea cable

    The first cable - the Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) - was cut at 0800 on 30 January, the firm said.

    INSIDE A SUBMARINE CABLE
    cable infographic
    1 Polyethylene cover
    2,4 Stranded steel armour wires
    3,5 Tar-soaked nylon yarn
    6 Polycarbonate insulator
    7 Copper sheath
    8 Protective core
    9 Optical fibres
    Not to scale

    A second cable thought to lie alongside it - SEA-ME-WE 4, or the South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 cable - was also split.

    FLAG is a 28,000km (17,400 mile) long submarine communications cable that links Australia and Japan with Europe via India and the Middle East.

    SEA-ME-WE 4 is a submarine cable linking South East Asia to Europe via the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East.

    The two cable cuts meant that the only cable in service connecting Europe to the Middle East via Egypt was the older Sea-M-We 3 system, according to research firm TeleGeography.


    It's amazing that a ship's anchor could have the strength to pull apart two layers of stranded steel armour wires, a layer of copper, kevlar layers, and three polyethylene layers.

    --
    Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
  11. Re:Maybe the NSA has to cut the cable to tap into by The_mad_linguist · · Score: 5, Funny

    >The government always surprise me by sinking to a new low, maybe this is the new low?

    Well, it *is* the bottom of the ocean.

  12. Re:Can anyone enlighten me? by russotto · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's amazing that a ship's anchor could have the strength to pull apart two layers of stranded steel armour wires, a layer of copper, kevlar layers, and three polyethylene layers.

    Have you ever seen an anchor? Sure, it's just a hunk of low-tech metal. But it's a very LARGE hunk of low-tech metal. Connected by a very heavy cable or chain to a ship which weighs many, many tons. Ripping apart a communications cable = not a problem.
  13. Re:Shallow seas by almightynayr · · Score: 5, Informative

    please quit pulling numbers out of your ass.. The waters are overall very shallow and have a maximum depth of 90 metres and an average depth of 50 metres. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Persian_Gulf#Geography

  14. Re:How to tap the cable by Eric+Smith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If the US wanted to tap the cable, they'd just use the submarine USS Jimmy Carter, which was retrofitted a few years back to perform exactly these sort of operations. They'd do it without any detected loss of connectivity.

  15. Re:How to tap the cable by eli+pabst · · Score: 5, Funny

    What does the sub have on it, a giant pair of scissors sticking out of the front? Actually it was fitted with a gigantic ear. In fact, the sub gets its name from the comically over-sized ears of Jimmy Carter.
  16. Re:How to tap the cable by Zymergy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yes and No. Its original class design was modified and lengthened by 100 feet to accommodate the "Multi-Mission Platform (MMP), which allows launch and recovery of ROVs and Navy SEAL forces. The MMP may also be used as an underwater splicing chamber for tapping of undersea fiber optic cables." (Wiki)
    OTOH, If the US Navy were doing 'tapping' with the Seawolf-Class SSN, no one would ever know about it. US Navy Submarine crews are the best there are and in this string of events, and the US Navy is not having "accidents" while tapping cables. *If* the US Navy is involved with these fiber cable cuts, they are on purpose and not due to errors. Those men truly know what they are doing and are very well trained.

    I wrote on this same topic (with links) this morning in an different story's thread: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=438002&cid=22263288

  17. related to opening of Iranian Oil Bourse? by bushwhacker2000 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    from a post on in the goldismoney forums:

    There's a good chance that this is related to the Iranian Oil Bourse. It is scheduled to be opened between Feb 1 and 11 on the island of Kish in the Persian Gulf.

    http://www.energybulletin.net/12125.html
    http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id...onid=351020103

    The US can't let it open, due to the damage it would do to the dollar. If it relies heavily on the Internet, then cutting the cables seems like it would be an effective, covert, non-violent way to go. And a totally disgusting manipulation of the free market, of course...