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San Francisco Fiber Optic Cable Cutter Strikes Again
HughPickens.com writes: USA Today reports that the FBI is investigating at least 11 physical attacks on high-capacity Internet cables in California's San Francisco Bay Area dating back to at least July 6, 2014, including one early this week. "When it affects multiple companies and cities, it does become disturbing," says Special Agent Greg Wuthrich. "We definitely need the public's assistance." The pattern of attacks raises serious questions about the glaring vulnerability of critical Internet infrastructure, says JJ Thompson. "When it's situations that are scattered all in one geography, that raises the possibility that they are testing out capabilities, response times and impact," says Thompson. "That is a security person's nightmare."
Mark Peterson, a spokesman for Internet provider Wave Broadband, says an unspecified number of Sacramento-area customers were knocked offline by the latest attack. Peterson characterized the Tuesday attack as "coordinated" and said the company was working with Level 3 and Zayo to restore service. It's possible the vandals were dressed as telecommunications workers to avoid arousing suspicion, say FBI officials. Backup systems help cushion consumers from the worst of the attacks, meaning people may notice slower email or videos not playing, but may not have service completely disrupted. But repairs are costly and penalties are not stiff enough to deter would-be vandals. "There are flags and signs indicating to somebody who wants to do damage: This is where it is folks," says Richard Doherty. "It's a terrible social crime that affects thousands and millions of people."
Mark Peterson, a spokesman for Internet provider Wave Broadband, says an unspecified number of Sacramento-area customers were knocked offline by the latest attack. Peterson characterized the Tuesday attack as "coordinated" and said the company was working with Level 3 and Zayo to restore service. It's possible the vandals were dressed as telecommunications workers to avoid arousing suspicion, say FBI officials. Backup systems help cushion consumers from the worst of the attacks, meaning people may notice slower email or videos not playing, but may not have service completely disrupted. But repairs are costly and penalties are not stiff enough to deter would-be vandals. "There are flags and signs indicating to somebody who wants to do damage: This is where it is folks," says Richard Doherty. "It's a terrible social crime that affects thousands and millions of people."
At a large scale, the internet was designed to route around individual problems such as this.
Can't this same principle be applied on a smaller scale?
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Don't trust the feds one bit. Especially when they say "The pattern of attacks raises serious questions about the glaring vulnerability of critical Internet infrastructure". In other words they want more funding and more control over backbones. These saboteurs will never be caught.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
You could understand the railroad companies not sabotaging pipelines because the railroads too have long equally vulnerable railroads and they did not want to trigger retaliatory sabotage from Rockefeller. But his disgruntled bankrupt oil competitors, the labor they would not be above sabotage. It was really war. Carnegie hired the Pinkertons to kill agitating workers. His henchman was shot, and survived, by one of the workers. Corrupt sheriffs would break up labor organizers and the anger and hatred was mutual and ran very deep.
Still, mile after mile of tin pipes traversing and crisscrossing Ohio, Western PA and later Indiana were left unmolested. How was that defended? How could one defend the fiber optic lines?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Best guess on who it is ?
Somebody that lost their job in IT because they were too old, didn't fit the diversity quota, or just had a SOB for a boss
Someone who is sick of trying to pay rent in SF ?
Criminal extortion scheme we haven't heard the details of yet ?
We need to immediately install 10,000 fake buried cable signs at scattered locations, and remove the real ones...
It is possible they are dressed up as Telco workers, but given their knowledge of the fiber lines, they couldn't possibly BE Telco workers...
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"thousands and millions of people."
Make up your mind.
Which is it.
Thousands or Millions?
Why not throw Hundreds and Billions into that sentence.
Might as well exaggerate all the way and confuse.
Maybe it's the MPAA and RIAA latest attempt to stop people sharing copywritten material on the internet? Didn't they say they want to cut pirates off?
Take Nobody's Word For It.
The south really misses their slaves, don't they?
A couple years ago, there were a series of fiber cuts in Humboldt County (300 mi. north of SF). They only targeted fiber owned by Suddenlink. The authorities suspected a telecom professional. A reward was offered, but they never caught the person. The cuts stopped after a couple months.
When our local fiber run was cut through here, it ended up being ignorant copper thieves.
I did it all for the penguins!
The death penalty already doesn't work as a deterrent for crimes very likely to be caught with loads of evidence elements like murder. What makes you think that it would work for one far harder to catch?
As someone who has a fiber line running in front of their house (literally, there's a "Do Not Dig Here, Fiber" post at the bottom of my driveway), but has access to only DSL, I can't say it isn't tempting.
"When an act of vandalism affects many thousands of people, it's pretty fucking serious."
It depends on how those many thousands are impacted. When biggest impact is not being able to download kitty videos at full speed, no, it is not "terrible". "Annoying" comes to mind, but not "terrible".
"Many people and businesses have their telephone service over the fibre"
Even if we accord at calling this "severe", severily impacting business is, well, "severe" at most, still not "terrible".
Adjective inflation lets you without terms for really big things. If "people may notice slower email or videos not playing, but may not have service completely disrupted" is "a terrible crime" what does this leave to, say, 09/11attacks? "a terrible crime indeed, I really mean it"?
While cutting cable to disable infrastructure could aid destabilization efforts in a thousand ways,
the FBI might also be investigating thieves seeking copper.
Go figure.
Or fiber optic Christmas tree enthusiasts seeking fiber.
Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
Hell, in the South, you could let them have the bug repellent. A chain gang in mid-summer is enough punishment for any crime.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
I live in what might be considered a rural area by some but I am 5 miles from my state capitol. There are underground fiber lines going down the main highway and fiber up my road to about 100 yards from me.. I actually walked down and watched them snake it under a road with a pneumatic torpedo.. cant get it.. the guys who install cable are Russian Illegals hired by a third party contractor for Verizon .. I talked with them for a while .. If our country ever gets attacked a few well placed people in these third party contractor companies that don't get checked will be able to take out our whole country in hours. They will know every weak point.
"A terrible social crime". Sounds like he's mad because his wife couldn't read Facebook.
I experienced the outage all the way in the placer county area. My internet, phone and cable were affected since they all are run through wave broadband. Yes, having no internet for a day sucked, but it got me thinking. Those vandals cut a single line, and I effectively lost 3/4 of my modes of communication.
I had my cell phone, so I was able to call and text. If a coordinated group of terrorists or a nation wanted to attack US soil, it wouldn't be that hard to cut out the people's communication. Our communication infrastructure might be more vulnerable than you think.
penalties are not stiff enough to deter would-be vandals.
Yeah cutting cables is a bad thing, but these days I get nervous when I see that sort of talk because it's never as simple as increasing penalties for vandals, something else always gets added.
"There are flags and signs indicating to somebody who wants to do damage: This is where it is folks," says Richard Doherty. "It's a terrible social crime that affects thousands and millions of people."
I mean who talks like this? It sounds like someone that didn't rehearse their script enough.
thousands and millions of people indeed.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
I am talking about the FBI : "When it affects multiple companies and cities, it does become disturbing,"
What I read is "When it happens to citizens, we don't care."
So apperently they cut of the wrong company or the wrong CEO and now they are disturbed. Before that? Meh.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Possibly because the Pinkertons would come in and beat/shoot people? Or, weren't these pipes generally running through private land. A simple tactic would be to align interests. The landowner only gets paid for days when the oil flows. Then the landowner would keep an eye out.