What would Russia have to gain by cutting the cables?
And - ripping this from /. , more cable problems in the ME.
And it looks like ships did not cut the other ones.
As said, hiding the fluctuations in signal created by placing a tap, by ensuring that the cable is down when it’s emplaced.
I suppose, but they really don’t have much to worry about in the M.E. Certainly not enough to risk the international backlash that would happen if they got caught.
What they do have is a bunch of oligarchs with billions of dollars of investment in the region. There no reason this couldn’t be commercial espionage with the help of the Russian government.
By the way, this damage explains my absence. If you folks do not hear from me for a while, panic not.
Or without the help of the Russian ( or American, or whatever ) government. Given that corporations are the ones fixing them, it seems logical that a corporation could perform the easier task of breaking them.
As before, you’re really reaching here.
Not really. Industrial espionage is pretty common ( as is the non-industrial kind, for that matter ). And having three cables break like this is quite suspicious.
Everyone is reaching here. As I said, this is rampant speculation. You seem to want to draw the unquestionable conclusion that if anyone is at fault, the U.S. is. That seems unwarranted to me at this time. YMMV.
Well, we know what services have been disrupted by these breaks so it’s pretty easy to figure out what kinds of traffic are going across them. So, I’m pretty certain not only what kinds of traffic, but I’m pretty sure I could guess what protocols are being used and probably know the equipment if I saw it.
Even if the traffic is encrypted you can sniff the traffic from any of the peered ISP host border router if you know where it is (i.e. if you have some knowledge of the ISP’s infrastructure architecture). You don’t need to put your tap on the line to capture traffic if you have sophisticated tools.
For instance, if I know the internal architecture and logical address of your network I can put a logical sniffer on any of your physical ports and capture all the traffic going to that port (if I have the capacity to hold, sort and scan all that traffic of course)…especially if I was ‘inside’ your network. Even from the outside I could do it…though I’d need to hack in first.
Once in I could set up to only capture traffic between 2 of your ports anywhere in your network…or a combination of ports. Capture all data or select data to or from any ports I want. I don’t have to cut an Ethernet cable in half and put a tap in between to capture network traffic between the end points. This is what I could do with just the tools in my office. I have an inkling of what the US government is capable just because I’ve worked at the Pentagon on some of their cyber security contracts and I have friends who still do. Their capabilities are…pretty unreal. They would not need an undersea splice in order to tap into that traffic. If they really want that traffic they have been tapping into it for years.
These undersea cables would be trunk lines into to huge telco switches. They would carry voice, video and various types of data. All of which would be digital…and so all of which could be captured digitally.
-XT
They I have no idea what you are saying. The cables were cut under the water. I would presume that in your mind at least the tap was being put in where the cables were cut. Q.E.D. the tap is under the water. Even if they cut the cable then drag it to the surface to put in the tap (they would need to re-seal the cable or corrosion would do in any electronics you put on…and I’m thinking the folks who actually go out to repair said cable would see your handy dandy tapping device. Not to mention that IIRC when cable cuts like this happen they usually just saw off a couple of feet of the damaged cable before they attempt to re-splice).
I’m sure they do. The problem is the volume of data it would require to listen to everyone. It’s sort of like predicting the weather. Oh, you could do it…if you have massive amounts of computer time dedicated to only doing that one task. You could predict the weather with 100% accuracy for tomorrow…it would only take you a couple of months.
:rolleyes: Do you know where these breaks are and what traffic it’s disrupting? For that matter why do you think they need a tap to search for those kinds of key words on a public network??
And I find the strawman built by folks who are essentially paranoid CT nutballs rather amusing to. I never said the US government doesn’t have the cyber capabilities to spy on both US and foreign internet traffic…and doesn’t use that capability daily. What I SAID is they don’t need a stupid break in the cable to do so.
Hopefully I answered this when I answered Sam. If you want specifics I could give you my GUESS how they do it. It’s not a guess that they can do it though. If I, lowly IT engineer that I am, can think of a couple of ways you can take it to the bank the government already is doing it (in fact, I actually know they are…just not to what extent).
I don’t know. It COULD be the US cutting those cables to disrupt traffic, but I’m unsure what we’d get out of that either. Could be Israel, but the same thing. Could be the Russians or Chinese…they both have the capability. It could be terrorists using low tech methods (i.e. actually using anchors or dragging equipment).
I only speculated that if it WAS deliberately cut I think it was cut to screw with the traffic and disrupt service. People don’t realize how dependent they are on this technology until it goes away.
It COULD just be a series of accidents or fuckups. Or, it COULD be something the ISPs did themselves (rolled out a router config change before it was fully tested, snarled up the traffic big time, and they came up with the sea cable breaks as a cover).
-XT
You can’t imagine that it might be useful to disrupt communications in a region in which you plan to take military action? That would be step one, if I were one of the generals/admirals running such an operation.
Not really, no. If we wanted to attack, say, Iran, they we would send in bombers to hit all of their key C&C sites with precision strikes. Of course, then we’d need to find another army and all the supplies and such they would need, cart it all over there to stage it up, and then invade or whatever.
Since I don’t see an attack by the US as being imminent and I seriously doubt Israel is in any better position…no, I don’t see what purpose it achieves for either of them. If it WAS a deliberate cut it makes more sense it’s terrorists or some other group who wants to sow chaos and hurt markets and such.
You would disrupt internet and phone service to an entire region of the world when you knew that military communications wouldn’t be effected? When it would serve very little military purpose? Glad you aren’t a general/admiral is all I can say.
-XT
Especially when you have the convenient cover of a belligerent superpower whom everyone will immediately assume is responsible.
Yes, knocking out Iran’s internet will leave them virtually undefended. It is the basis for their armed forces.
Well, if they couldn’t get to altsex.farmanimal.com I’m thinking their military efficiency would be seriously impaired…
-XT
If I was planning on attacking Iran, and using disruption of internet access as a battle precursor, I think I would do it only just before the actual attack, rather than giving them three times to practice doing something about it.
So, this “attack” is being carried out by military morons. Not that that changes the possibility of any of the suspects named so far.
Tris
Myself I see this as either a fuckup by one or more peered ISPs (very likely, though simply based on my opinion), a natural event such as some kind of oceanic subsidence (unlikely, at least I’ve heard of no such event) or some kind or the intervention by a group or even a nation state to disrupt service in the area for reasons unknown but probably related to financial and or simply to be a disruption (likely).
In the unlikely to bat shit crazy category I think are (in no particular order) the wire tap gambit, the military strike option, alien invasion of the ME and the Cloverfield monster scenario.
My guess is we’ll know what happened in a couple of days or a week or so…and it will be pretty boring.
-XT
Cite?
And if it is either country I say JOB WELL DONE.