Attack on telephone infastructure

[BobA]

So is this some prelude to larger attacks or someones idea of a very costly joke?

link to news about attack

[ark_ader]

Sometimes these incidents happen.  Only benefit comes from them afterward.  It will wake up alarm bells.

I bet Homeland Security will be looking at other sites and determining if they are accessible from outside sources.

I would be ticked off to think my cell would not work, considering that most people carry cell phones as a backup to their land lines.

Like the report says:  Whoever did this will be in a world of hurt when caught, especially if there are deaths involved.

[SavannahLion]

I bet Homeland Security will be looking at other sites and determining if they are accessible from outside sources.

It's been a few years since I learned about it, but it's already been done.. sort of. From what I could remember a University student harvested public record documents from a variety of sources to create a tool that maps out all the utility connections and lay it over a Google(?) map. One of the cool features of the software was to analyze weaknesses in any utility grid. eg, if one were to severe Point A, you can knock out service to the entire west coast. Did it as part of his graduate thesis and thusly presented it to his professor. The student and prof presented it to several companies out of concern for the security of the utility networks. Every single one of the companies begged the student not to share the information with the public (remember, all the information he obtained from public records, it was never assembled and presented in such a manner before.) The student eventually got a call from a federal agency (FBI? Not sure), had his thesis clamped, and his laptop seized. Clearly, they didn't do a hell of a lot with the information to secure the utility networks or the harvested data. Go figure.

I clearly remember this being a Digg article and I thought I dugg it, but I wasn't able to dig up the links. I don't remember enough details to recall who or where this was.

I would be ticked off to think my cell would not work, considering that most people carry cell phones as a backup to their land lines.

Correction, most people are using their cell phones as a primary means of communication. Their land lines is a backup to the cell (assuming they even have land lines anymore).

[ChadTower]

Correction, most people are using their cell phones as a primary means of communication. Their land lines is a backup to the cell (assuming they even have land lines anymore).

...and who makes these batteries?  What would happen should that supply be cut off?

We are treading some very dangerous waters in terms of foreign dependence and getting further from shore every year.

[Ed_McCarron]

I would be ticked off to think my cell would not work, considering that most people carry cell phones as a backup to their land lines.

How do you think the cell tower connects to the outside world?  Cut that link and the tower is dead.

Hopefully, instead of panicking, the telcos responsible figure out how to build in some redundancy.

[SavannahLion]

Correction, most people are using their cell phones as a primary means of communication. Their land lines is a backup to the cell (assuming they even have land lines anymore).

...and who makes these batteries?  What would happen should that supply be cut off?

We are treading some very dangerous waters in terms of foreign dependence and getting further from shore every year.

The smartest ones would hack some new batteries in there. The not-so smart ones would revert back to an old 80's concept, car phones. The rest of the people would just panic.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but do you honestly think 85% of the U.S. even remotely understand the globalization problem at hand much less even care about it? This goes right in hand with similar problems. What percentage of the population do you think are willing to actually spend the slight extra money to buy fresh groceries and spend the time to cook their own (healthy) dinners as opposed to hopping down to the nearest fast food joint and buying a gallon soda, a bucket of cheesy fries, and triple deck burger from the dollar menu? Or how about those same people that like to shop at Wal*Mart even though Wal*Mart is responsible in some way for many of those people losing their jobs at the local grocery store or at the T-Shirt factory? Shop at Target for a "Made in the U.S.A" shirt or shop at Wal*Mart for a Chinese made shirt to save an extra buck?

Very few people ever actually stop to think about the consequences of their actions. As much as I would like to think optimistically about what Obama tells us, my gut feeling tells me it will take a complete cut-off to shift our dependence from foreign industry. This cutting of the fiber-optics isn't a wake up call, it's just a hint of what's going to happen if we don't work things out.

[RayB]

I should have read the article instead of skimming, but its possible it was just people looking for copper, rather than intentional service disruption.

[ChadTower]

Metal prices have plunged... maybe 8 months ago but I just don't see someone cutting something that major for scrap.  Nobody is risking their lives anymore for copper.

[SavannahLion]

Depends on where you live ChadTower. Where I am, thieves resorted to stealing the brass plugs (stops, caps, whatever they're called) for the fire fighter water valves on high rises. The estimated value to a recycler? About 8 cents for each one. They've also taken to stealing the brass rings around the sidewalk lights some buildings have, but those are a bit more involved apparently. They also steal the brass fittings from public toilets.

In any case, RayB, they didn't cut copper lines, they cut through fiberoptics. If someone was stealing copper, wouldn't they have noticed it wasn't copper as soon as they cut through the outer jacket and moved on to some other cable?

[ChadTower]

Depends on where you live ChadTower. Where I am, thieves resorted to stealing the brass plugs (stops, caps, whatever they're called) for the fire fighter water valves on high rises. The estimated value to a recycler? About 8 cents for each one. They've also taken to stealing the brass rings around the sidewalk lights some buildings have, but those are a bit more involved apparently. They also steal the brass fittings from public toilets.

Recently?  That all stopped here many months ago.

[SavannahLion]

Depends on where you live ChadTower. Where I am, thieves resorted to stealing the brass plugs (stops, caps, whatever they're called) for the fire fighter water valves on high rises. The estimated value to a recycler? About 8 cents for each one. They've also taken to stealing the brass rings around the sidewalk lights some buildings have, but those are a bit more involved apparently. They also steal the brass fittings from public toilets.

Recently?  That all stopped here many months ago.

Yeah, it was a blurb on the news just last week or late the week before I think. I thought it was always a problem, I've seen them missing on most buildings since last summer. I guess the problem has gotten bad enough for the news to make mention of it.

From what I understand, they're these pipe fittings that fire fighters can attach a hose to and pump water into the building.

[BobA]

Metal prices have plunged... maybe 8 months ago but I just don't see someone cutting something that major for scrap.  Nobody is risking their lives anymore for copper.

The main damage was cuts to fibre optic lines.   This created much more havok then cutting copper lines since the signals are much more concentrated.   There was no copper to salvage from the lines that they cut.

[Ed_McCarron]

Metal prices have plunged... maybe 8 months ago but I just don't see someone cutting something that major for scrap.  Nobody is risking their lives anymore for copper.

The main damage was cuts to fibre optic lines.   This created much more havok then cutting copper lines since the signals are much more concentrated.   There was no copper to salvage from the lines that they cut.

If it was one location, I'd believe it was people looking for copper.  Most of the fiber I install doesn't look any different from any other black wire, unless you read the printing on it.  Following the 'copper thief' logic, I doubt they know what OFNR means.  In vaults, theres often not even colored innerduct.

Since it was in multiple places, I have to believe it was someone out to cause a communications outage.

[RayB]

My thinking was, they cut the cable (maybe in one shot with a big cable cutter), they look and see its not copper, then cut a couple more to find the copper ones. Don't overestimate the intelligence of the people doing this. We're talking dumb of the dumb to be resorting to this.