Undersea cable chopping

[bascule]

5 undersea cables carrying massive amounts of data for countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia have been cut.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayA...section=theuae

What's your take on this? At this point, isn't it clearly a malicious act?

[0x58]

Re: Undersea cable chopping

Clearly? There has been no confirmation so I don't want to say yes, but at the same time I do find it very suspicious that it is certain countries that seem to be targeted for these internet blackouts.

It has to be malicious, there is no other reason to cut the fiber, and even if it was a boat anchor like they have been saying, it is nearly impossible for that to happen 5 times in such a short time span.

Is this that submarine from the Navy that is able to tap into fibre that is on the ocean floor, without anyone knowing screwing up?

[Greyhatter]

Re: Undersea cable chopping

Is this that submarine from the Navy that is able to tap into fibre that is on the ocean floor, without anyone knowing screwing up?

Could it be the Chinese Navy practicing cyberwarfare covertly?

http://www.google.com/search?q=Chine...overtly%3A

http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/pdfs...ower-final.pdf

http://staff.washington.edu/dittrich/cyberwarfare.html

[theprez98]

Re: Undersea cable chopping

Less spam is always good.

SEA-ME-WE-3 (10 Gbps) and SEA-ME-WE-4 (1+Tbps) provide most of the bandwidth between the Middle East and Europe. A cut in just one of them (particularly the latter) is a big problem for the Middle East.

[Thorn]

Re: Undersea cable chopping

Could it be the Chinese Navy practicing cyberwarfare covertly?

http://www.google.com/search?q=Chine...re+covertly%3A

http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/pdfs...ower-final.pdf

http://staff.washington.edu/dittrich/cyberwarfare.html

To say it's the Red Chinese Navy may be premature at this time, since there is little or no proof, as yet, that the any of the cable have been cut deliberately.

However, the Red Chinese Navy has reportedly cut cables in the 1990's. If I recall correctly, it was a small cable in the Sea of Japan between South Korea and Japan. The cable was almost obsolete, and the intent was more to prove that they had the capability than than to cause a major outage.

On the other hand, cable breaks are not unknown, and it could be a statistical fluke. Submarine cables do break, and anchor drags are a common cause. One report I read in the last few days said that in the Atlantic Ocean alone, there were 50+ breaks last year.

[bascule]

Re: Undersea cable chopping

there is little or no proof, as yet, that the any of the cable have been cut deliberately [...] cable breaks are not unknown, and it could be a statistical fluke.

I don't want to jump to conclusions here, but...

The accidental cutting of two cables I had no trouble chalking up to an accident.

But then days went by and it was 3 cables... then 4... then 5...

It's seeming awfully suspicious at this point...

[Thorn]

Re: Undersea cable chopping

I don't want to jump to conclusions here, but...

The accidental cutting of two cables I had no trouble chalking up to an accident.

But then days went by and it was 3 cables... then 4... then 5...

It's seeming awfully suspicious at this point...

I agree, the number and the timing are suspicious. I'm just saying that the jury is still out on the cause.

From reading about it, the first "two" is just one incident, since the Mediterranean FLAG cable and the SeaMeWe-4 cables are apparently laid parallel and relatively close together. According to a BBC News report, an anchor drag from one ship may have caused a double break. I don't know if the same thing applies to others, but it may. If that's the case, we may be seeing only three incidents.

Of course, according to the same report, the Egyptian communications ministry said no ships where in the area of the break when it occurred.

On a related note, Neal Stephenson wrote an excellent article on submarine cables back in Wired 4.12 (Dec 1996) called "Mother Earth Mother Board". It offers a detailed view of the hows and whys of undersea cables, and has some details about how the cables are broken, and the repair process. I'd suggest anyone interested in the current situation read it. It's an interesting look at a bit of tech that a lot of us take for granted. (At least until they break.)

[theprez98]

Re: Undersea cable chopping

Three planes crash within a few days and the same arguments are heard: "plane crashes happen in threes!"

Red comes up 3 times in roulette. Then a 4th time, then a 5th! Is the wheel rigged? Nope.

I suspect these cable cuts happen more often than we think, but just don't make the news. But these particular cuts made the news because they were critical weak points in the infrastructure between Europe and the Middle East.

Is someone doing it intentionally? Possible, but I don't think we have nearly enough information to automatically dismiss that it's just happening by chance.

[xor]

Re: Undersea cable chopping

It's the cow mutilating space aliens in the black helicopters following Britney Spears if you ask me :).

xor

[Thorn]

Re: Undersea cable chopping

It's the cow mutilating space aliens in the black helicopters following Britney Spears if you ask me :).

xor

Can't we just give her to them?

[Greyhatter]

Re: Undersea cable chopping

Can't we just give her to them?

What, and let them have all the entertainment value? Never mind, when does she launch?

[0x58]

Re: Undersea cable chopping

Three planes crash within a few days and the same arguments are heard: "plane crashes happen in threes!"

Red comes up 3 times in roulette. Then a 4th time, then a 5th! Is the wheel rigged? Nope.

I suspect these cable cuts happen more often than we think, but just don't make the news. But these particular cuts made the news because they were critical weak points in the infrastructure between Europe and the Middle East.

Is someone doing it intentionally? Possible, but I don't think we have nearly enough information to automatically dismiss that it's just happening by chance.

I think it is a possibility that they don't come up on the news as often as they happen, but I also believe that it is just a bit too much to have the exact cables be cut/break that provide communication to certain countries in the middle east. It all seems a little too planned out, too organised.

Since we are on the subject of fibre on the ocean floor, does anyone know if a map exists of all the existing fibre that is around the world? Or just GPS co-ords so that they can be mashed up onto an Google Maps type setup? Cause that would own!

[Greyhatter]

Re: Undersea cable chopping

Since we are on the subject of fibre on the ocean floor, does anyone know if a map exists of all the existing fibre that is around the world?

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-imag...SeaCableHi.jpg

http://www.telegeography.com/product...le_Map_big.gif

This raises an interesting question... Does knowing where all this cable lies make us all more vulnerable or less vulnerable? While we don't want to accidentally sever these vital cables we do know where they are if we wanted to.

[theprez98]

Re: Undersea cable chopping

but I also believe that it is just a bit too much to have the exact cables be cut/break that provide communication to certain countries in the middle east. It all seems a little too planned out, too organised.

This is just the problem. It was initially reported that the entire country of Iran was disconnected from the Internet by this latest cable cut. Suspicious, yes? No. Bad reporting, because nothing of the like had actually occurred. But very few news agencies ever follow up on the initial reporting.

[bascule]

Re: Undersea cable chopping

Three planes crash within a few days and the same arguments are heard: "plane crashes happen in threes!"

Red comes up 3 times in roulette. Then a 4th time, then a 5th! Is the wheel rigged? Nope.

I suspect these cable cuts happen more often than we think, but just don't make the news. But these particular cuts made the news because they were critical weak points in the infrastructure between Europe and the Middle East.

Well, that seems to be exactly what was happening...

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/200...t-the-cab.html

Stephan Beckert of TeleGeography Research says it's all a bit much.

[...]

"Cable cuts happen on average once every three days," Beckert said. There are 25 large ships that do nothing but fix cable cuts and bends, Beckert adds.