AT & T Offers $ 250,000 for Cable Cutter
The AT & T backbone provider increased the $ 250,000 reward for information to help catch vandals involved in disconnecting Silicon Valley from the Internet. Last week, almost at the same time, AT & T trunk cables were cut on the outskirts of the city of San Jose and near the town of San Carlos (California), as a result of which telephone communication was broken in three districts of California (including disconnected cellular communications, Internet and ATM , the 911 rescue service was unavailable. Experts are unanimous in the opinion that this is directed sabotage.
Anyone who is familiar with the technology of laying fiber, knows that to penetrate underground tunnels and find the right cable there is almost impossible without special training. Of course, it can be assumed that some homeless or cyberpunk climbed into the tunnel (although the hatches in them are not locked, but they weigh 150 kg and open with a special hook) and accidentally cut this particular cable, among hundreds of others, belonging to public utilities and other providers. But what happened at the same time in two places with cables of the same company is an absolutely unrealistic coincidence.
Acts of vandalism occurred on Thursday, from 2 to 4 am local time. For full restoration of service, engineers needed a whole day. Then, on Thursday, AT & T set a reward for information about intruders in the amount of $ 100,000, and in less than a day increased the amount to a quarter of a million. The police and the FBI have already joined the search.
If the company is ready to lay out such an impressive amount, then it can be assumed how dangerous it considers such sabotage and how afraid of their repetition. At the same time, we see how easy it is to inflict serious economic damage on such a vulnerable company as an Internet provider. Its entire multi-million dollar business depends on a fragile, unsecured cable infrastructure. And even the fact that, after the attacks of September 11, AT & T's infrastructure is recognized as critical to US national security, does not make it more secure.
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It should also be noted that AT & T's PR specialists very quickly responded to this emergency and informed the audience in detail even through Twitter .
Anyone who is familiar with the technology of laying fiber, knows that to penetrate underground tunnels and find the right cable there is almost impossible without special training. Of course, it can be assumed that some homeless or cyberpunk climbed into the tunnel (although the hatches in them are not locked, but they weigh 150 kg and open with a special hook) and accidentally cut this particular cable, among hundreds of others, belonging to public utilities and other providers. But what happened at the same time in two places with cables of the same company is an absolutely unrealistic coincidence.
Acts of vandalism occurred on Thursday, from 2 to 4 am local time. For full restoration of service, engineers needed a whole day. Then, on Thursday, AT & T set a reward for information about intruders in the amount of $ 100,000, and in less than a day increased the amount to a quarter of a million. The police and the FBI have already joined the search.
If the company is ready to lay out such an impressive amount, then it can be assumed how dangerous it considers such sabotage and how afraid of their repetition. At the same time, we see how easy it is to inflict serious economic damage on such a vulnerable company as an Internet provider. Its entire multi-million dollar business depends on a fragile, unsecured cable infrastructure. And even the fact that, after the attacks of September 11, AT & T's infrastructure is recognized as critical to US national security, does not make it more secure.
')
It should also be noted that AT & T's PR specialists very quickly responded to this emergency and informed the audience in detail even through Twitter .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/57152/
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