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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 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"