Vandals sever another Internet backbone cable in California

internet optic lightsPC World – by James Niccolai

Someone hacked through yet another fiber optic cable in the San Francisco Bay area early Tuesday morning, continuing a rash of incidents that have disrupted Internet traffic and vexed law enforcement officials.

The latest attack occurred at around 4.30 am Pacific Time near the town of Livermore, about 50 miles east of San Francisco. Someone climbed down a manhole cover there and cut through several fiber optic cables, according to several reports. The FBI is investigating.  

The cables are operated by backbone providers such as Level 3 Communications, which sell capacity to other cable and Internet providers. The cables carry huge amounts of data, so cutting them can slow services over a wide area.

Microsoft said Tuesday its Azure service was disrupted for several hours on the west coast, apparently due to the Livermore incident. Service provider Wave Broadband was also affected. Some of its customers in the Sacramento suburbs lost phone service for a time and had slower than usual Internet service, said Wave spokesman Mark Peterson. Services were restored late Tuesday night, he said.

The FBI has now reported 11 incidents in the Bay Area over the past year in which people intentionally cut through fiber optic cables. It’s not clear if the attacks are related. Five of the incidents were in Fremont, with others in Berkeley, San Jose and Walnut Creek. The FBI wants people to report any suspicious activity around the time the cables were cut. A list of the previous 10 incidents is here.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2943457/another-fiber-optic-cable-severed-by-vandals-slowing-west-coast-internet.html

6 thoughts on “Vandals sever another Internet backbone cable in California

  1. This reminds me exactly of when those under-the-ocean internet cables were being severed years ago, I think during the Bush administration. Does anyone remember that?

    I think the below wikipedia is what I remember. I also think they do this possibly for nefarious reasons, like installing spyware or something along those lines. Are you telling me with all the cameras and security everywhere, no one catches who is doing this? That tells me it’s “condoned” very high up:

    2008 submarine cable disruption

    2008 submarine cable disruption was three separate incidents of major damage to submarine optical communication cables around the world. The first incident caused damage involving up to five high-speed Internet submarine communications cables in the Mediterranean Sea and Middle East from 23 January to 4 February 2008, causing internet disruptions and slowdowns for users in the Middle East and India.[1] The incident called into doubt the safety of the undersea portion of the Internet cable system.[2

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_submarine_cable_disruption

  2. A complete crock of shite. No one besides a government spook is going to climb down a manhole to cut internet cables. Our side likes the internet.

    But what this article does do is tell us that they’re gong to shut down the internet, and blame it on vandals (or patriots), of course.

    1. The one I posted above, who besides a GOVERNMENT would be going around in a submarine and severing huge internet cables under the ocean? And I remember at the time, they said something along the same line like “vandals” or “terrorists”, etc… As if anyone but a government would have a submarine, and if they did, as if a government couldn’t detect someone in a submarine somewhere cutting important gigantic internet cables. People cannot seem to use their common sense when they read these stories.

      As if ME, I have a submarine and no one sees me going around in it. Of course, only people connected to a super-power government/military can cut huge underwater internet cables without being “outed”, and they control the “news”, too. So the “news” says “unknown vandals/terrorists”, then the story completely drops out of the “news” for CHICK-FIL-A or GROUND ZERO MOSQUE or CONFEDERATE FLAG.

  3. Things like this don’t happen and get reported unless they (THE ELITE) want it that way.

    Like JR says, “what this article does do is tell us that they’re gong to shut down the internet, and blame it on vandals (or patriots), of course.”

    Enough said.

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