Undersea Cable Cut Impacts Europe, Asia

Terry Olaes

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
Joined
Nov 27, 2006
Messages
4,646
Three undersea cable cuts have severely impacted voice and data traffic between Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. What caused the cuts is unknown and traffic is being rerouted but it’s still a dicey situation. Full restoration isn’t expected until 12/31.

Most business to business traffic between Europe and Asia was being rerouted through the United States, the firm said, but regular communications between Europe and several Asian countries has been disrupted since early Friday. Sixty-five per cent of traffic to India was down, while services to Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Taiwan and Pakistan were also severely affected.
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Again? Seems like this is becoming some sort of cyber terrorism.
 
Dunno about you guys, but why is it so easy to cut the cables? Isn't there some kind of covering/protection to prevent this from happening?
 
That would probably really increase the cost, since right now aren't they just basically inside a rubber hose or something and they can keep it on a reel?
 
Maybe this is why I can't get to malwarebytes.org...
 
Even if there was, there's some aweful big propellers out there :)

Mav451 said:
Dunno about you guys, but why is it so easy to cut the cables? Isn't there some kind of covering/protection to prevent this from happening?
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From my understanding the cable is in a series of 3 "sheaths" the outer rubber, the inner cloth, and then another rubber on protecting the fiber. Undulations in the current purportedly was what caused the first breaks, but like someone said above...this is definitely suspicious now.
 
Mav451 said:
Dunno about you guys, but why is it so easy to cut the cables? Isn't there some kind of covering/protection to prevent this from happening?
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What usually happens is the cable is on the bottom of the ocean floor, when a ship anchors its anchor usually is dragged around the ocean floor and can rip the cables apart and the diameter of the cables is quite small.
 
sharks.jpg
 
Sounds pretty obvious to me. If data is being rerouted through the US, then the NSA can listen in on that data. But then again, I did leave my tin hat at home, so it's probably just another drunk boat captin.
 
I'm on the wire tap bandwagon. Either that or fish have joined the internet revolution and need bandwith.
 
vengence said:
Sounds pretty obvious to me. If data is being rerouted through the US, then the NSA can listen in on that data. But then again, I did leave my tin hat at home, so it's probably just another drunk boat captin.
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lol, they don't have to have data routed through the US to listen in, in fact they prefer that it's outside the US.
 
w1retap said:
lol, they don't have to have data routed through the US to listen in, in fact they prefer that it's outside the US.
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Look, I know it wasn't the NSA. It was obviously the RIAA. Remember how they said TODAY they were going to be cutting off peoples access to the internet? Obviously India was doing a large amount of peer to peer!
 
When I saw this story, I thought "Oh no! They're doing it again!"

But I was thinking about the conspiracy-mongering tin-foil hat brigade around the internet. Not some fanciful cabal of internet cable cutters.

Shit happens. Some people need to shape and mold that shit to fit their worldview instead of just accepting that it's shit. . . and moving on. ;)
 
Does this mean I can't get a hold of Dell tech support in India? *snicker*
 
Hurin said:
When I saw this story, I thought "Oh no! They're doing it again!"

But I was thinking about the conspiracy-mongering tin-foil hat brigade around the internet. Not some fanciful cabal of internet cable cutters.

Shit happens. Some people need to shape and mold that shit to fit their worldview instead of just accepting that it's shit. . . and moving on. ;)
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So you honestly believe that these cables getting cut 5 and 3 at a time is nothing but coincidence? Really?
 
At the affected people's expense...this is a good thing.

Is there anyway to measure the number of hack and spam coming from Europe and Asia while the cable is down? :D
 
Not again!
This explains why my MSN keeps disconnecting last night.

Everything seems normal right now though, so no complains. They can take their time to fix it :D
 
Mav451 said:
Dunno about you guys, but why is it so easy to cut the cables? Isn't there some kind of covering/protection to prevent this from happening?
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It is heavily protected. Siesmic activity and dragging ship anchors are pretty much the only things that can cut it. Asside from a power hack saw or a blow torch, nothing ordinary is going to clip it.

General Crespin said:
That would probably really increase the cost, since right now aren't they just basically inside a rubber hose or something and they can keep it on a reel?
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Nope, they are incredibly expensive and heavily protected by multiple layers of steel wire, kevlar sheathing, rubber sheathing, gelatin, etc.

TechLarry said:
Even if there was, there's some aweful big propellers out there :)
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Most cables are not in the areas where ships can reach other than dragging their anchors which is very common in storms.

Fuser said:
What usually happens is the cable is on the bottom of the ocean floor, when a ship anchors its anchor usually is dragged around the ocean floor and can rip the cables apart and the diameter of the cables is quite small.
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Correct, and if you have a big storm, you have a whole collection of anchors being dragged... almost raking the surface.

vengence said:
Sounds pretty obvious to me. If data is being rerouted through the US, then the NSA can listen in on that data. But then again, I did leave my tin hat at home, so it's probably just another drunk boat captin.
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US submarines and robots are able to intercept data without the need for it to be routed through US networks.
 
Rabid Badger said:
So you honestly believe that these cables getting cut 5 and 3 at a time is nothing but coincidence? Really?
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Yes.

Why would you believe anything else? Based on what evidence? Why wouldn't the owner of the cables be up in arms and demanding that action be taken against the nefarious cable-cutter if it were anything but an accident? The owners of the cables themselves say it is "unlikely to be an attack."

"The causes of the cut, which is located in the Mediterranean between Sicily and Tunisia, on sections linking Sicily to Egypt, remain unclear," a statement said, while a spokesman said it was unlikely to have been an attack.

. . .

The cables might have got caught up in trawlers' nets or there may have been an underwater landslide, said Aymard. One appeared to be fully severed, while the other two seemed to be only partially cut, he added.
​
It's pretty clear that they consider the loss of three cables at once w/out fair play (that apparently are very near each other) to be "rare". . . but certainly within the realm of possibility.

So. . . let me turn your loaded, condescending question back around on you. . . "Do you really think somebody is out there cutting internet cables? Really? Do you? For what (reasonable, rational, realistic) purpose? Really? Really?"

But that's okay, forcing square pegs into round holes in order to prop up people's preconceived notions and worldviews is a lot more gratifying than just accepting that sometimes shit happens.

Bush-haters will blame bush. America-haters will blame America in general. Some will blame terrorists. Some (I'm sure) in the Arab world will blame Israel. Stories will be invented about new oil stock exchanges being due to open this very day. . . or an aborted invasion of some nearby country. And those believing such tripe will have nothing to base this on other than the mistaken assumption that this couldn't just happen. Meanwhile. . . the cause is probably a bumbling boat crew or a natural event.
 
Hurin said:
It's pretty clear that they consider the loss of three cables at once w/out fair play (that apparently are very near each other) to be "rare". . . but certainly within the realm of possibility.
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That should be "foul play." :D
 
Hurin said:
Yes.

Why would you believe anything else? Based on what evidence? Why wouldn't the owner of the cables be up in arms and demanding that action be taken against the nefarious cable-cutter if it were anything but an accident? The owners of the cables themselves say it is "unlikely to be an attack."

"The causes of the cut, which is located in the Mediterranean between Sicily and Tunisia, on sections linking Sicily to Egypt, remain unclear," a statement said, while a spokesman said it was unlikely to have been an attack.

. . .

The cables might have got caught up in trawlers' nets or there may have been an underwater landslide, said Aymard. One appeared to be fully severed, while the other two seemed to be only partially cut, he added.
​
It's pretty clear that they consider the loss of three cables at once w/out fair play (that apparently are very near each other) to be "rare". . . but certainly within the realm of possibility.

So. . . let me turn your loaded, condescending question back around on you. . . "Do you really think somebody is out there cutting internet cables? Really? Do you? For what (reasonable, rational, realistic) purpose? Really? Really?"

But that's okay, forcing square pegs into round holes in order to prop up people's preconceived notions and worldviews is a lot more gratifying than just accepting that sometimes shit happens.

Bush-haters will blame bush. America-haters will blame America in general. Some will blame terrorists. Some (I'm sure) in the Arab world will blame Israel. Stories will be invented about new oil stock exchanges being due to open this very day. . . or an aborted invasion of some nearby country. And those believing such tripe will have nothing to base this on other than the mistaken assumption that this couldn't just happen. Meanwhile. . . the cause is probably a bumbling boat crew or a natural event.
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I couldn't agree more. Well said.
 
LOL, sadly the best written article on the subject of broken undersea cables comes from a NY Times article from 1903:

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9E0DE1D91439E433A2575BC1A9669D946297D6CF

Apparently back in those days, if your anchor snagged an underseas cable, it was common practice to just ditch the anchor because the cable companies would buy you a new one rather than have the angry ship captain taking an axe to the cable to free his anchor.

That article makes more sense than my guess at the cause: The dreaded sawfish, nature's biological saw.
 
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