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Vandals snipped another fiber optic cable line in the San Francisco Bay area this week, the 12th incident of its kind in the region over the past year.
The latest attack occurred in the San Joaquin Valley town of Stockton, disrupting Internet, mobile phone, and 911 service for tens of thousands of AT&T and Verizon customers in three counties east of San Francisco. Service was restored about a day after the Tuesday incident.
The FBI, which is investigating the attacks, has not stated a motive, but it said the attacks usually occur in remote areas where there are no surveillance cameras. The initial attacks on California telecommunications lines began in July 2014. Whoever is responsible appears, for the moment, to be operating with impunity.
It would be funny and appropriate if they kept snipping the cables running to the Wall Street high frequency traders that keep front-running everyone's trades. Also, potentially lucrative if you go long in Depends adult diapers first.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday July 21 2015, @11:26AM
We got the tapping theory, the disruption theory... how about the false flag theory? Or security theater corruption?
So... its practically illegal in the People's State of CA to own a gun, kids should be sitting inside on an xbox or tablet not innawoods... I could see a nice false flag op to make it illegal to walk in public within a mile of buried cables, if that means "everywhere" well so be it, if that was the original purpose. I see the obvious avenue of government abuse, but to what purpose? Sure, goofing around you could say they need to clear the general public out of the countryside because of the UFO landings, but everyone knows that already happens at Area 51. So... why would the government want to basically lock people down and keep them apart? Maybe just senseless FUD, keep the masses scared and the security theater checks rolling in... speaking of which ...
I suppose it could be simple financial corruption. Spin off a "security" company, whine on TV and at politicians until the spinoff gets a billion dollar security theater contract to install trail cams that aren't going to be monitored or maintained, and collect the fat profits. A billion dollar return on investment for a couple trail cams, some shovels, and a lock cutter or two... I could see it. If there's a zillion dollar security theater contract accepted in a couple months to "fix" the problem, then this was likely the cause. Certainly we've seen higher levels of corruption in general, and it sounds like typical security theater.
So that brings us up to four more or less realistic theories.
As for ridiculous theories, if there were a labor dispute the corporate owned media would be screaming from the rooftops about union terrorists and since thats not happening I assume thats even less likely a cause than the UFO invasion theory.
Another ridiculous theory could be over the top vigilante response to poor customer service. But in a place as plagued with gun violence as CA (the only people without guns are the non-criminals, at least in CA), you'd expect more shooting at offices and service trucks, not snipping cables in the middle of nowhere. Typical human response to disrespect from other humans would not be going into the woods, but fighting back at some random symbolic human. So this is ridiculous.
So I think I've listed all six known theories, only four of which are vaguely plausible?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by fritsd on Tuesday July 21 2015, @01:30PM
I just made up another conspiracy theory: a practise run.
Maybe some American TLA or commando unit needs to practise "disrupt enemy communications", which would be an act of war to do in any other country than the USA, so how do you do a realistic exercise? Practise on your home turf; if anybody sees or reports the soldiers then the whole commando unit has to dig latrines for a year, otherwise it's "mission accomplished" without bloodshed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @07:36PM
Are you saying Jade Helm? But it's not Texas! But if it's not Texas, then it must be an attack by the "enemy" territory of Texas (or Utah, but that's not really an exercise, it's history) on California!! Gov. Abbott has taken the initiative! What is next? Will Texutah disrupt the Starbuck's supply chain?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday July 22 2015, @01:03AM
One more, the optimist: Reverse Practice Run: How do you know you have enough infrastructure redundancy to sustain a real attack if you never run a real trial?
They say you can blackout most of the country by attacking half a dozen distribution points, maybe some TLA wants to force upgrades the fiber networks.
One more, the pragmatic: "what do you mean I can't get FTTH, the hub is right there!" "Sorry sir, the existing setup doesn't support adding your connection" "Well, let me call you after some unforseen even changes your upgrade plans"