[113376] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Outside plant protection, fiber cuts, interwebz down oh noes!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Martin Hannigan)
Fri Apr 10 11:50:35 2009
In-Reply-To: <49DE70E0.6040807@thewybles.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:48:14 -0400
From: Martin Hannigan <martin@theicelandguy.com>
To: Charles Wyble <charles@thewybles.com>, "nanog@nanog.org" <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
Its all risk and cost. You possibly couldn't have spent enough to stop
this event. The outside plant wasn't at fault, highly motivated and
informed individuals were. Pretty much a non issue, IMHO.
Best,
Martin
On 4/9/09, Charles Wyble <charles@thewybles.com> wrote:
> Seriously though I want to start some discussion around outside plant
> protection. This isn't the middle of the ocean or desert after all.
>
> There were multiple fiber cuts in a major metropolitan area, resulting
> in the loss of critical infrastructure necessary to many peoples daily
> lives (though twitter stayed up so it's all good). :) It would appear
> that this was a deliberate act by one or more individuals, who seemed to
> have a very good idea of where to strike which resulted in a low cost,
> low effort attack that yielded significant results.
>
>
> So allow me to think out loud for a minute....
>
> 1) Why wasn't the fiber protected by some sort of hardened/locked
> conduit? Is this possible? Does it add extensive cost or hamper normal
> operation?
>
> 2) Why didn't an alarm go off that someone had entered the area? It was
> after business hours, presumably not in response to a trouble ticket,
> and as such a highly suspicious action. Does it make sense for these
> access portals to have some sort of alarm? I mean there is fiber running
> through and as such it could carry the signaling. Would this be a
> massive cost addition during construction?
>
> 3) From what I understand it's not trivial to raise a manhole cover.
> Most likely can't be done by one person. Can they be locked? Or were the
> carriers simply relying on obscurity/barrier to entry?
>
>
>
>
>
--
Martin Hannigan martin@theicelandguy.com
p: +16178216079
Power, Network, and Costs Consulting for Iceland Datacenters and Occupants
