February 6, 2008 - 6:03 A.M.
Cut cables? Conspiracy conjectures! (and SP1 soon?)
- TAGS:FALCON, FLAG, Internet, Iran, SeaMeWe, submarine, undersea
- IT TOPICS:Careers, Government & Regulation, Hardware, Internet, Security
Did you miss me? It's IT Blogwatch back again, with the mysterious story of the four severed undersea cables [or is it five now?]. Not to mention the real reason why Vista SP1 isn't ready yet...
The IHT's Heather Timmons reports:
Four undersea communication cables have been cut in the past week, raising questions about the safety of the oceanic network that handles the bulk of the world's Internet and telephone traffic. Most telecommunications experts and cable operators say that sabotage seems unlikely, but no one knows what damaged the cables or whether the incidents were related ... Undersea cables carry about 95 percent of the world's telephone and Internet traffic. [more]
Mike Masnick ponders:
Did The Warranties Just Run Out On Undersea Cables? ... It started off with reports of two cut cables ... in the Mediterranean, with the explanation being that a boat anchor dragged across them. Yet, late Friday, reports came in of a third cut cable ... in the Persian gulf, followed by Egyptian reports denying that the cuts were caused by ships, saying none were in the area. To top that off, on Sunday, reports came in of a fourth cable with problems in the Middle East ... It certainly is mighty strange to have four separate undersea cables with such problems in the same region within a few days of each other. [more]
Wily Ferret inquires:
No word on how the latest cable has been busted up, although there is a suggestion that it has failed due to a power outage. We're not quite sure about that one. Traffic is still getting through, thanks to the huge amount of redundancy built into the packet-routing system the net works on, but we wonder if it isn't time to call in the big guns already. Scooby Doo, where are you? [more]
Frank "+++ATH" Hayes speaks:
It's usually called "backhoe fade." Not this time, though ... this isn't some backwater where Net access doesn't matter. The Internet is every bit as critical to businesses across the Middle East as it is in the U.S. ... The result? Well, that's the interesting part: Nobody panicked ... no one started shooting. During a month of wild stock-market swings, financial markets didn't collapse. [more]
Douglas Schweitzer listens:
It seems odd to me, but for some reason I wouldn't have thought undersea cables would be so susceptible to damage from ships at sea above them ... Maybe these cable cuts happen all the time and I've just never heard about it ... Perhaps I'm naive, but I would expect that vessels large enough to cause this type of damage would be aware that such cables are in their path ... Did I hear someone saying conspiracy theory? [more]
Yes, you did. For instance, Brad MacLeod:
Iran was scheduled to inaugurate its Oil Bourse this coming week. That probably isn't going to happen because all internet access in Iran was cut over the weekend (the undersea cables were chopped) ... Iran is in total internet blackout at the moment. [more]
And an anonymous mathaba.net denizen writes:
The United States has specialist navy training and submarines precisely trained and geared to the cutting of cables and communication. International communications as well as the Internet has several bottle-necks where the break of a single cable or communications node can render countries and even regions of the world vulnerable. [more]
Last word goes to Jeff:
Could whoever is doing this please disconnect Nigeria too? [more]
And finally...
Buffer overflow:
- Freedom to Tinker: Unattended Voting Machines, As Usual
- Esther Schindler: A Useful Interview Question for Developers
- Layer 8: National cybersecurity threats abound, National Intelligence director tells Senate
- Stacey Higginbotham: So Long Flash, and Thanks for the Memory
- Mike Masnick: Telcos Realizing Markets Don't Just Grow Forever
- T1 Rex: Is WiMAX Worth the Wait?
Other Computerworld bloggers:
- Mark Hall: See corporate social networks in action
- Sharon Machlis: Voter: Paper beats computers
- Preston Gralla: Microsoft was right to delay SP1 release
- Robert L. Mitchell: Trouble in FiOS-land
- Shark Tank: Full-service user support
- Douglas Schweitzer: In the wake of Storm, Mega-D shines
- Mike Elgan: Build-to-order cell phone store launched
- Frank Hayes: IPv6 tries, tries again
- Sharon Machlis: Obama a Mac? Hillary a PC? Edwards a ...
- David DeJean: Microsoft-Yahoo!: reasoning by analogy
- Seth Weintraub: Apple taking on Kevin Swint, Wal-Mart Digital Media Head, for International iTunes Movie Rentals
- Mark Hall: Be good. Be green.
- Shark Tank: Imponderables
- Preston Gralla: With SP1 and Yahoo bid, Microsoft becomes the new IBM
- Mike Elgan: How to work from the beach
- Seth Weintraub: Unsanctioned iPhones overseas? Yeah, bigtime
- Robert L. Mitchell: Microsoft + Yahoo = Sears + Kmart
- Mitch Betts: 5 reasons to worry about a Microsoft/Yahoo merger
- Michael R. Farnum: Credit Card Naïveté
- Sharon Machlis: Microsoft's bid for Yahoo: the risks
- Mark Hall: Dumb IT
- Shark Tank: Looking out for No. 1
- Preston Gralla: Microsoft-Yahoo deal: The only way to save Microsoft Live
- Shark Bait: Does it need power?
Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 22 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You too can pretend to be Richi's friend...
Previously in IT Blogwatch:
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