[102301] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: [admin] Re: Fourth cable damaged in Middle Eest (Qatar to UAE)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kee Hinckley)
Mon Feb 4 12:11:34 2008
From: Kee Hinckley <nazgul@somewhere.com>
To: nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0802040425570.25788-100000@bawx.pilosoft.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2008 12:07:39 -0500
Errors-To: owner-nanog@merit.edu
On Feb 4, 2008, at 4:29 AM, Alex Pilosov wrote:
> This conversation is quickly spinning into discussion of politics and
> terrorism.
>
> Reminder to all, please stick to the *operational* aspects of this
> thread.
In all the fuss about terrorism, people may be forgetting that the
terrorists have goals *other* than terrorism, and one of those is
reducing the influence of the West over the Middle East. Removing
internet connections certainly is an effective (and probably
necessary) step in that direction. Even if this was accidental, it
will have made them more aware of the possibility.
Which leads me to my operational question.
If you know that someone wants to cut your cables. What defense do
you have? Is there any practical way to monitor and protect an
oceanic cable? Are there ways to build them that would make them less
discoverable? Some way to provide redundancy? A non-physical solution
involving underwater repeaters? Or is this like pipelines in Iraq?
