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AT&T Offers $250k Reward To Find the California Fiber-Optic Ripper
An anonymous reader writes: AT&T have offered a $250,000 reward to anyone providing information leading to the arrest and conviction of what appears to be a serial disruptor of fiber-optic connections in California. The latest incident has taken place in Livermore in the San Francisco Bay Area, where an individual thought by the FBI to possess expert knowledge and specialist tools severed a critical AT&T cable, gaining access to the enclosure via a manhole. The attack precedes 11 previous ones in California in the preceding twelve months.
death penalty
He's in California.
Every adventurer's career has to begin somewhere. Why not have it be through tracking down a fugitive in the obligatory sewer level?
Since AT&T was obviously not using those fiber lines properly to begin with.
No, "The attack is preceded by 11 previous ones", not precedes them!
The cart is before the horse that's before the cart? The quality of the description provided by the north end of a southbound horse?
Just take a look through the list of people laid off by AT&T in the past year.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Missing the "typo" tag for summaries. The latest vandalism doesn't "precede" any but future attacks.
Sincerely,
AC
*sigh*
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
Jack the Ripper has changed tactics and resurfaced after silently ripping to himself for the past century or so.
"The latest incident..." "The attack precedes 11 previous ones..."
The latest incident took place before 11 previous incidents...
Not not does this person have expert knowledge of Fiber-Optic networks, they must drive a DeLorean. Clearly we're looking for Doc Brown...
Personally, I am a bit disappointed that the reward wasn't 256k.
My god, he has access to time travel as well!
It's these guys! Can I have my money now?
There shouldn't be critical cables. There should be redundant paths to make the network tolerant to any individual cut.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Let's see... ...did I miss anyone? Well, that list only covers about 98% of the population.
* Ex-employees.
* Current employees.
* Ex-customers
* Current customers
* Rivals
You would think these companies would have better monitoring on their fiber installs, being able to tell within a few minutes at most when a piece of fiber went dark and dispatch repair crews/police to try to catch them in the act. From what I understand some of the cases went unnoticed for hours/days.
As a californian, 250k might not seem like a lot, but with that kind of cash you could afford to water the lawn AND take a shower after!
Good people go to bed earlier.
From the producers of Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime
Cutting communications lines is a particularly difficult type of terror attack to prevent. Anyone who has ever worked around vital communication lines knows where they are and breaking those lines can be quite easy. Catching such a person may take quite some time and expense. Let's hope this is not the scheme of some foreign enemy.
That 250,000 tax free? shirt, if they tax it at 33% plus local tax fees/wage taxes/city tax/amusement tax. The Government has to get a piece of the pie too.
Jack of all trades,master of none
Maybe those layoffs weren't such a cost-saver after all!
Jack maybe?
*sigh*
It's not a mistake, it's a clue. A good one. Clearly, the perp is a time-traveller, which really narrows down the list of suspects.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
I think they meant that the attack "follows" or "was preceded by" 11 previous ones. It doesn't mean what it says, though, that's for sure.
Seriously? Find a pole marked in orange (or in this case, manhole). Take the bolt-cutters to the only armored cable on the pole / in the hole. Make sure to repeat at least a few feet away to make it virtually impossible to splice cleanly.
This doesn't take "expert knowledge and specialist tools", any moron could do it.
Now, doing it without blinding yourself with a 40W IR laser beam...
While the guy above you is an ass, clearly... It really isn't like that at all.
Millions of dollars of business isn't running through your house, pleb. This is not at all comparable.
I know one of the guys who installed most of the fiber in this area, and I also know Ham radio operators (who are very conscious about communications), and their independent conclusions are that "someone" is testing the fiber paths for redundancy in planning for a widespread fiber attack at some future point in time.
Dear sd your app is broken . I should be able to override my comment filtering options by tapping on a comment
work in progress
We MUST build terminator bots to patrol and protect the tunnels under our manholes. And sharks to protect the underwater ones.
I meant your mobile site. It's almost as hopeless as me
work in progress
I know how I could generate work for myself. Just sayin. OK I confess it was me.
Did anyone talk to the kid who got arrested for bringing a digital clock/suitcase nuke into a Texas school? I mean, clearly he's a troublemaker and has the extremely advanced technical skills to be able to access a manhole Mission Impossible-style and sever fiber-optic cables with his mind.
I'm not saying, I'm just saying, you know?
You are welcome on my lawn.
k = kilo = 1000
You meant K = K = 1024
256K dollars is much more than $256,000.00 (256k dollars).
Or the people they have overcharged and cheated. They could, of course, stop cheating and gouging people, but the $250k reward is small potatoes compared to what they overcharge people each year with their monopoly powers.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Who said it was just one person? Could it not be more than one?
How was this conclusion reached?
imagine,
if they improved their customer service arm of the company with the absorbsion of Direkt TeeVee I bet it woudl be easier on an order of magnitude to find this individual.. or perhaps it may just stop all together
who the F*ck am I kidding, they enjoy it too much.. It wont stop, and service will just degrade..
Or the details of the payment,, Spread over 25 to 30 years.. paid in yearly stipens..
Given the damage this guy / these guys are doing, 250k is an insult. If I had a lead on that I would be asking a 50 million outside the US or fuck you, ATT, reach out and touch yourself (based on the ATT commercial jingle if you grew up in the late 70s early 80s)
Finding a Time-Traveller may be difficult. However, for those wishing more info on time-travelling, this announcement might be helpful.
The Time Travelling convention will be held last month! Tickets went on sale next week! Get yours yesterday before they run out!
For that much money I'd cut some lines and then turn myself in!
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
You forgot "competitors".
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Is it just mayhem to cause trouble,
or probing for something serious later
or cutting service to somewhere so he can do something while service is down,
or something else.
If I were writing a movie, doing something while service is down makes the best plot.
"The attack precedes 11 previous ones in California in the preceding twelve months."
What does the attack precede?
what should be modded, but never will :(
No doubt it is Vladdy himself doing a practice mission for the day he and his ninjas will invade America !!!
"The attack precedes 11 previous ones"
The cutter is trying to prevent time travel, stopping the internet before it is born, so it can't be used by the time-circularity machine.
Sticking it to the man. Good job whoever you may be.
You forgot they've been checking the usual suspects since 11 months ago and no leads.
Seems like $250K would be a bargain to get ahold of that tech!
Could AT&T have used that money to filter MMS messages carrying Android malware devivered via StageFright? If so, then who at AT&T made the decision to abandon their paying customers in favor of protecting their (gl)ass?
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
I'd be willing to bet it's a legitimate subcontractor fulfilling poorly worded service orders, and AT&T has its head up its ass.
I wonder if this sort of thing is getting more common. We've been seeing a lot of fiber breaks, attributed variously to "rodent chew," "car striking utility pole," and "wind damage," but all in a relatively small area for one set of connections, and I've heard of similar coincidental clusters of breaks in other areas. Nobody wants the bad press of admitting to sabotage, and unless its something obvious like a cut armored cable, its easy to attribute it to some random accident. Or I could just be paranoid, but that is what they pay me for.
bahahaha
"We don't care, we don't have to...we're the phone company." -- Ernestine (Lily Tomlin)
Another NSA related video from Laugh-In from about 1970.
Tracking this guy down could make a cool numbers episode.
Just set up a security camera and catch them in the act.
AT&T Offers $250k Reward To Find the California Fiber-Optic Ripper
His name is Jack... Jack the Ripper.
I don't think you have a firm grasp on the word "monopoly".
Surprised this wasn't in the headline, both words are contained in the summary.
ie. "250k reward offered for information leading to arrest of Serial Rippist."
The latest incident... precedes 11 previous ones... in the preceding twelve months.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
"The attack precedes 11 previous ones..."
So, wow, we may have much more to worry about after this time-traveling alien has finished probing the weaknesses in our infrastructure.
I don't think you have a firm grasp on the word "monopoly".
Actually, I do. There are a few competitors to AT&T in California.....Sprint, T-Mobile, and U.S. Cellular come to mind.
I doubt it's any of them, frankly, it's more likely to be some disgruntled jackass or former employee.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
AT&T has* offered
AT&T is one corporate entity. You use has. It has, they have. That's how it works. AT&T is an "it", you use has.