USA Today reports that the FBI is investigating at least 11 physical attacks on high-capacity Internet cables in California's San Francisco Bay Area dating back to at least July 6, 2014, including one early this week. "When it affects multiple companies and cities, it does become disturbing," says Special Agent Greg Wuthrich. "We definitely need the public's assistance." The pattern of attacks raises serious questions about the glaring vulnerability of critical Internet infrastructure, says JJ Thompson. "When it's situations that are scattered all in one geography, that raises the possibility that they are testing our capabilities, response times and impact," says Thompson. "That is a security person's nightmare."
Mark Peterson, a spokesman for Internet provider Wave Broadband, says an unspecified number of Sacramento-area customers were knocked offline by the latest attack. Peterson characterized the Tuesday attack as "coordinated" and said the company was working with Level 3 and Zayo to restore service. It's possible the vandals were dressed as telecommunications workers to avoid arousing suspicion, say FBI officials. Backup systems help cushion consumers from the worst of the attacks, meaning people may notice slower email or videos not playing, but may not have service completely disrupted. But repairs are costly and penalties are not stiff enough to deter would-be vandals. "There are flags and signs indicating to somebody who wants to do damage: This is where it is folks," says Richard Doherty. "It's a terrible social crime that affects thousands and millions of people."
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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: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 02 2015, @08:45AM
Wireless companies are cutting their competitors fibers to get consumers to switch to wireless instead.
Meanwhile, blame DEH TERRISTS for AT LEAST 9/11 PHYSICAL ATTACKS!
We need More military police funding! KILL the fucking rag-heads who hate OUR FREEDOMS!
HOW will you get your CAT VIDEOS with TERRISTS fucking up YER INTRNET!
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday July 06 2015, @07:16PM
DID anyone else READ this IN a william SHATNER voice?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by dr_barnowl on Thursday July 02 2015, @09:08AM
I saw this theory on, you know, that OTHER forum platform.
If you cut a cable, it gives you a free reign to splice a surveillance device elsewhere in that same cable - the initial cut covers the outage, and any change in signal levels will be put down to variance in the splice.
So, it's likely it's being done for espionage reasons of one kind or another, the Bay Area being a big tech hub n'all.
If it's a coordinated pattern of attacks the only alternative is that it's a bunch of Luddite nutjobs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 02 2015, @09:32AM
NSA doesn't need to splice cables. NSA can demand access to the cables and plant child porn on anyone who refuses.
Far more plausible than your bullshit NSA theory: you're doing it, and you're the Luddite nutjob.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 02 2015, @04:47PM
NSA doesn't need to splice cables. NSA can demand access to the cables and plant child porn on anyone who refuses.
Far more plausible than your bullshit NSA theory: you're doing it, and you're the Luddite nutjob.
I don't think the GP mentioned the NSA. The NSA wouldn't have to, but It could be anyone:
Organized Crime
China
Russia
...
Wikileaks
Snowden
Microsoft (to help with Bing)
etc.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday July 02 2015, @09:22PM
Look at the title of that post.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 02 2015, @09:53PM
Oops, that's what I get for not reading titles (kind of hate it when the post doesn't work without the title, sigh).
In any case, the serious half of my response still stands, that there are groups other than the NSA that may want to copy and parse internet data for their own ends.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 02 2015, @09:52AM
That's a totally implausible theory. Even assuming the NSA would need to physically tap the cables, they would certainly be smart enough not to create a detectable pattern that proves coordination.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by VortexCortex on Thursday July 02 2015, @01:27PM
Even assuming the NSA would need to physically tap the cables, they would certainly be smart enough not to create a detectable pattern that proves coordination.
You mean like the physical splices they have had in telcos since long before 9/11, such as Room 641A? [wikipedia.org] Or before that, Omnivore / Carnivore [wikipedia.org], ECHELON [wikipedia.org], and etc. warrantless wiretaps everyone who searched for knew about for decades? You know, all that stuff the PATRIOT Act granted retroactive immunity to telcos for cooperation with? Surely, if the NSA were as smart as you think they were then a room full of their fractional splitters wouldn't have been discoverable by some nosy telco worker. In your fictional uber sleek spycraft wielding idealized version of the NSA they would have disguised the taps right along with all the other hardware, maybe the switches would be "hacked", and secret agents would maintain the systems in the open with no one being the wiser... but, nope, they left a "detectable pattern" that "proves coordination" with AT&T (among other telcos) in the form of big dedicated rooms full of suspicious fiber taps.
Not that I believe the NSA would want to cut fiber for no good reason (they don't want wired seen as bad/evil so that we're pushed closer to using exclusively wireless mesh -- much harder to tap every air wave everywhere than a few trunk lines); However, I'm afraid we can't rule out the NSA or some other covert operations based on grandiose assumptions of unlimited coolness. They've already got physical taps in most places, but say you wanted to upgrade your splices and needed some down time? They do indeed physically tap undersea fiber cables [theatlantic.com], so why wouldn't they tap easier to access wires? Some businesses (like Google) had private fiber lines they sent unencrypted data over figuring that no one could see the data anyway -- Google started encrypting such traffic after leaks showed the NSA would tap such lines so the company didn't have to collude with the NSA for them to get your data. The cuts Are in the San Fran area, eh? While we're dispelling illusions: When the NSA wants to hack your stuff, they don't send in a team of elite hackers to target you with super secret zero-day vulns, they use something similar to the skiddie Metasploit tool to deploy exploits purchased on the black market, [theatlantic.com] just like any other thug would.
One of my "crazier" theories is that it's the Unabomber, or someone like him. You should read that manifesto; Interesting stuff about becoming slaves to technology and the elites that own it -- That is: It's not necessarily "troglodytes" who would have the motive to cut cables. I'm pretty sure they didn't get the right guy for those bombings though.
(Score: 2) by BananaPhone on Thursday July 02 2015, @02:49PM
You are right. it is too "public"
Makes for a great diversion though...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday July 03 2015, @01:26AM
I'm pretty sure they didn't get the right guy for those bombings though.
On what basis? For counterevidence we have stuff like this story [cbsnews.com]:
CBS station KPIX-TV in San Francisco aired a report Tuesday about the evidence. A source close to the case gave the station photographs of the items, which included his typewriter, a handmade gun of wood and metal, writings, and the hooded sweat shirt and sunglasses featured in his FBI wanted photos.
"He wrote about everything. He wrote about what he had for lunch on May 5 of 1979, where he got the food, how he prepared it and what did it taste like," said retired FBI agent Max Noel, who helped lead the investigation.
Investigators also found an unexploded bomb inside a silver box with the name of another intended victim, the station reported.
Kaczynski described in his writings how he placed two human hairs he found in a bus station into a bomb "to deceive the policemen, who will think that the hair belongs to whoever made the device," KPIX reported.
Kaczynski also made a homemade gun — part wood, part metal — that was untraceable. About the gun, he wrote, "I want to use the gun as a homicide weapon," KPIX reported.
(Score: 1) by btendrich on Thursday July 02 2015, @11:38AM
The NSA can coerce the providers into installing the taps themselves. Other countries spy agencies however...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 02 2015, @12:22PM
The only alternative is it's Luddite nutjobs? How about a pissed off telecom worker? What about someone with mental illness? A bunch of teenagers who are doing it for kicks? You're not really thinking too hard about this; there are a lot of alternatives.
(Score: 2) by darnkitten on Friday July 03 2015, @02:22AM
If it were in my area I'd think it was someone pissed that the telco put in fibre lines that wouldn't handle predicted traffic.
Hmm...
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday July 06 2015, @07:18PM
The only alternative is it's Luddite nutjobs? How about a pissed off telecom worker? What about someone with mental illness?...
How about incompetent copper thieves?
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday July 02 2015, @04:59PM
Another plausible theory, given the location: It's the revenge of Terry Childs [boingboing.net].
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday July 02 2015, @09:08AM
two sets of namesevers, for a total if seven stopped responding to pings all at the same time.
Despite that 811 exists to prevent cable cuts, not only was there no way for me to report that one had just happened, it was clised for the day.
I called 911 but the dispatcher claimed I was delusional. He did not believe me that this could be an emergency. What if that cut were not an accident?
He hung up on me when I requested he connect me to a network operations center.
San Jose, California folks.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 02 2015, @09:16AM
Porn Site Down! Emergency! Help! Rapidly Losing Erection! SOMEONE PLEASE FUCK ME!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 02 2015, @12:07PM
Well, if the cable cut already happened, it was a bit too late to prevent it anyway.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday July 02 2015, @10:33PM
If a natural disaster occured right then the phone systems would not work. Earthquakes happen all the time in San Jose.
My real concern was that it was that there were more than one cuts. Supposed you wanted to make war on the united states. The best way to start is to eliminate our C^3I - Command, Communications, Control and Intelligence.
While the military has robust communications, civilians commonly dont. For example one might not be able to call 9-1-1 to report gunfire.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 02 2015, @09:53AM
Serious? You mean those cables didn't commit suicide?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 02 2015, @10:10AM
They just couldn't wait for gay marriage to be legalized and a pope who says divorce is OK now.
(Score: 1) by OrugTor on Thursday July 02 2015, @12:25PM
It sounds like the Numb3rs episode where someone knocked power substations offline with the ultimate goal of . The FBI has better uses for its special agents than investigating vandalism so hopefully they are considering more exotic scenarios such as a test run on taking a MMA offline. Removing network capability from a city has more serious consequences than thrusting cold turkey on kitten video addicts, e.g., power grid communications, bank transactions, you name it.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 02 2015, @07:34PM
someone knocked power substations offline with the ultimate goal of .
I think you accidentally the entire motive...
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday July 02 2015, @12:41PM
Someone wants to throw a wrench into the cogs of data mining and dependence?
(or it's some French pitchfork that just hit the ground deeply with a note "French farmer was here")
(Score: 5, Informative) by Snotnose on Thursday July 02 2015, @01:13PM
Back in the 80s and 90s when the internet was just getting it's legs under it, it was common for large areas to go dark because a backhoe operator cut through the T3 lines. I remember at one time, after a certain area had a few of these outages, someone asked "Have you guys ever heard of a fallback path?" Turns out they had, but the subcontractor had laid both independent cables in the same trench so both got knocked out at the same time.
Relationship status: Available for curbside pickup.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by darnkitten on Friday July 03 2015, @02:41AM
I'd vote for Grey's law as well--