The Register has found itself subject to a certain amount of criticism for this author's skepticism ( Richard Chirgwin http://www.theregister.co.uk/Author/2242 ) regarding whether the NSA has been snooping on optical fibre cables by cutting them.
Glenn Greenwald's recent “NSA cut New Zealand's cables” story is illustrative of credibility problems that surround the ongoing Edward Snowden leak stories: everybody is too willing to accept that “if it's classified, it must be because it's true”, and along the way, attribute super-powers to spy agencies.
In running the line that undersea cables were cut, Greenwald is straying far enough from what's feasible and credible that his judgement on other claims needs to be questioned. It seems to The Register almost certain that neither Glenn Greenwald nor Edward Snowden have actually held a submarine fibre cable in their hands.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/18/spies_arent_superheroes/
Do you think that it is credible that these undersea fibre cables were tapped when it is easier to tap onshore installations?
(Score: 5, Informative) by tathra on Saturday September 20 2014, @02:36AM
its not just possible, its routinely done. maybe not with fiberoptics cables, but undersea welding uses positive pressure enclosures if they need to do dry welds underwater; the welder basically lives in the chamber until the work is done.
with state resources, it'd be trivial to put one of those around an undersea backbone, and they'd be able to work at a leisurely pace so they could take as long as they needed to splice each individual fiber until the whole thing was done, rather than trying to rush and do everything as quick as possible.
i dont know if it'd be possible to do it without arousing suspicion, but the point is that they could have as much time as they needed to do it stealthily.