Re: [TSCM-L] {2371} Fear the Backhoe

From: kondrak <kon..._at_phreaker.net>
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:57:25 -0500

James M. Atkinson wrote:
> Two similar mid span cable cuts... massive service outages,
> suspicious circumstances.
>
> I would suspect that a grapple hook was involved and that someone
> went fishing for this cable just so that they could cut them to
> disrupt communications infrastructure.
>
> The ideal threat model is would be two boats grappling for one cable,
> which they cut is two places about a mile apart. The two more boats
> grappling for the cable on the secondary path(s) which they also cut
> in two locations separated by about a mile. The "floating" one mile
> segment that they isolate would then be towed some distance way from
> the main cable and then dropped back to the sea floor thus leaving a
> huge gap ensuring the outage lasted months, not days.
>
> By targeting both the primary and secondary cables (both sides of the
> rings) the saboteurs could have completely blinded everything in the area.
>
> One major cable outage in a region can be blamed for an accident, two
> in the same region is highly suspect.
>
>
> -jma
>
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/31/dubai.outage/index.html
>
> failure hits two continents
> Story Highlights
>
> Extensive Internet failure has affected much of Asia, the Middle
> East, north Africa
>
> A telecommunications provider blames the outage on a major cable failure
>
> It has caused major disruptions to business, television and phone services
>
> Several reports say damaged cable in the Mediterranean could take a week to fix
>
> From CNN's Elham Nakhlawai and Mustafa Al Arab
>
> DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- Large swathes of Asia, the
> Middle East and north Africa had their high-technology services
> crippled Thursday following a widespread Internet failure which
> brought many businesses to a standstill and left others struggling to cope.
>
> One major telecommunications provider blamed the outage, which
> started Wednesday, on a major undersea cable failure in the Mediterranean.
>
> India's Internet bandwidth has been sliced in half, The Associated
> Press reported, leaving its lucrative outsourcing industry trying to
> reroute traffic to satellites and other cables through Asia.
>
> Reports say that Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United
> Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain are also experiencing severe problems.
>
> Nations that have been spared the chaos include Israel -- whose
> traffic uses a different route -- and Lebanon and Iraq. Many Middle
> East governments have backup satellite systems in case of cable failure.
>
> An official at Egypt's Ministry of Communications and Information
> Technology, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was believed
> that a boat's anchor may have caused the problems, although this was
> unconfirmed, AP reported. He added that it might take up to a week to
> repair the fault.
>
> Rajesh Chharia, president of India's Internet Service Providers'
> Association, explained that some firms were trying to reroute via
> Pacific cables and that companies serving the eastern US and the UK
> were worst affected, AP added.
>
> Besides the Internet, the outage caused major disruption to
> television and phone services, creating chaos for the UAE's public
> and private sectors.
>
> There were contradicting reports on the real cause behind the
> disruption, but Du, a state-owned Dubai telecom provider, attributed
> it to an undersea cable cut in the Mediterranean Sea between
> Alexandria, Egypt and Palermo, Italy.
>
> A Du internal memo, obtained by CNN, called the situation in Dubai
> "critical" and stated that the cable's operators did not know when
> services would be restored.
>
> "This will have a major impact on our voice and Internet service for
> all the customers," the memo stated. "The network operation team are
> working with our suppliers overseas to resolve this as soon as possible."
>
> The outage led to a rapid collapse of a wide range of public services
> in a country which proudly promotes itself as technological pioneer.
>
> Sources from Emirates Airlines confirmed to CNN Arabic that the
> outage did not affect its flight schedules -- a statement which
> assured hundreds of travelers worried after rumors about the
> possibility of rescheduled flights due to the faults.
>
> However, Dnata, a government group in charge of providing air travel
> services in the Middle East and ground handling services at Dubai
> International Airport, acknowledged facing problems because of the
> outage, sources from its technical department confirmed to CNN Arabic.
>
> The outage heavily crippled Dubai's business section, which is
> heavily reliant on electronic means for billions of dollars' worth of
> transactions daily.
>
> Wadah Tahah, the business strategies and development manager for
> state-owned construction company EMAAR, told CNN Arabic that it was
> fortunate the outage started Wednesday, when there had been only
> moderate activity in the UAE markets. He said that softened the blow
> to business interests.
>
> But Tahah warned that if the outage continued, "such a situation
> could create problems between brokers, companies, and investors due
> to loss of control."
>
>
>
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Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:26 CST