Gunplay Blamed For Cutting Fiber 276
coondoggie writes "Internet service providers in the US experienced a service slowdown Monday after fiber-optic cables near Cleveland were apparently sabotaged by gunfire. TeliaSonera AB, which lost the northern leg of its US network to the cut, said that the outage began around 7 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday night. When technicians pulled up the affected cable, it appeared to have been shot up over a length of a kilometer. 'Somebody had been shooting with a gun or a shotgun into the cable,' said a TeliaSonera spokesman. The company declined to name the service provider whose lines had been cut, but a source familiar with the situation said the lines are owned by Level 3 Communications Inc. Level 3 could not be reached for comment."
obl. D&D (Score:5, Funny)
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Go find your frickin DMG.
Re:obl. D&D (Score:5, Funny)
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Me, I got all I can do to survive the surprise round with my dialup FTP server, miserable thing. I will kill it, I WILL!
Kill the wabbit, Kill the wabbit, Kill the wabbit, Kill the wabbit, Kill the wabbit, KILL THE WABBIT!
Re:obl. D&D (Score:4, Funny)
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After all, he who giveth, taketh away.
I guess someone... (Score:4, Funny)
I usually stay out of gun control debates... (Score:2)
However, this is one persuasive argument for making guns illegal!
(I feel compelled to point out that I'm only joking.)
Re:I usually stay out of gun control debates... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I usually stay out of gun control debates... (Score:5, Funny)
We already have gun control.
Those with the guns are in control.
If you go with one cliche'... (Score:2)
Re:If you go with one cliche'... (Score:4, Funny)
Around here, 'gun control' means that we hit what we aim at.
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Something doesn't add up here, most American's wouldn't have a clue how long that is. I'm wondering if this is a European planted story, to bring up gun control????
Hehehe..ok, guess that a bit far fetched for even the most enthusiastic conspiracy theorists...but, still, kilometers in a US story? Strange.....
Re:I usually stay out of gun control debates... (Score:4, Funny)
It happens. Reporters, being somewhat lazy on the technical end sometimes, will run with whatever units their source provided them. Some happy-go-lucky SI geek gets a hold of an impressionable or lazy reporter, and you'll get kilometers, grams, liters (litres!) and all other sorts of perversion and anti-American sentiment. That's how I understand how it happens, anyway.
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No, I meant what I said and said what I meant (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I usually stay out of gun control debates... (Score:4, Informative)
So, no, the original article was in Imperial measurements, but the summary converts it to km for the sake of having a round number.
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Really, the point is that it takes several generations to change the default units though - I learned to bake cookies (not the http kind, but the ones with chocolate chips) in a 350 degree oven (F, of course), and even though all new recipe books have the degC values, and my stove with a digital thermostat could display either, you can bet that it is configured to degF because while I can always convert the numbers, I can 'feel' out what 350 is, and know what things
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In certain parts of Idaho, Utah, and Montana, that joke could get you shot.
Yeah, right (Score:2)
'Twas just a joke (Score:2)
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Last time I dug up a shotgun slug from the ground after a target practice, it was less than 6 inches under ground...
Therefore I guess the sabotage suggestion might make
1 kilometer == Distance of a Single Shot (Score:5, Interesting)
So it was deliberate, but also quite quick if done right too. Pretty devious way to take out fiber because the entire length needs replacing, not just a short section that requires a bypass.
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It could be a contractor though.
Re:1 kilometer == Distance of a Single Shot (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:1 kilometer == Distance of a Single Shot (Score:5, Insightful)
However I still think that a kilometer -- or anything more than a few feet, really -- is longer than they would move inside the cable. Maybe if you fired at an oblique angle into an empty water pipe or something, so that the pellet could ricochet along inside the tube, but a cable (where the outside is presumably made of some fairly soft material that would absorb energy with each impact)
To wipe out a section of cable that long I think that someone would need to walk along and repeatedly shoot it.
What I find most interesting is that it was deliberate destruction, it wasn't accidental destruction or theft. There have been a lot of cases lately where people have stolen cable or wiring for its scrap or resale value, so I wouldn't have been totally surprised if someone had just cut and then hauled away a large section of cable (although, in the case of fiber, I don't think there's much of a resale value and they'd probably damage it beyond repair during the theft). But to go and destroy it but leave it in place, makes it pretty clear that someone did it quite deliberately, and that the damage was the goal and not just an accidental byproduct.
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1 km is over 1000 yards. Most shotguns loss their effectiveness after 70-80 or even 100 yards and rarely have enough punch to kill something after 60 yards or so. And this is in an open field without the small confined walls the for the
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If it were something like 100mm plastic ductwork then it's unlikely that the pellets would bounce much at all.
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It would appear to me that the cable in question was buried.
Now, I am sure there is probably an access point to the duct that you could open and stick the muzzle of a gun down. Depending on the material, it might ricochet down the length. However, I be
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However I still think that a kilometer -- or anything more than a few feet, really -- is longer than they would move inside the cable. Maybe if you fired at an oblique angle into an empty water pipe or something, so that the pellet could ricochet along inside the tube, but a cable (where the outside is presumably made of some fairly soft material that would absorb energy with each impact)
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but aren't Fiberoptic cables lined with Kevlar? It's squishy but... It'
Duh!!! - They weren't Shooting the Fiber! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I guess someone... (Score:5, Funny)
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Bored hunters are assholes (Score:5, Interesting)
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I don't read it that way. If you have a kilometer-long cable span and you cut it once, you've taken down a kilometer of cable. Unless you're willing to splice it in the middle, you'll replace the whole run.
rj
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"Hello? IT Help Desk?" (Score:5, Funny)
Well.. (Score:5, Funny)
The mob (Score:5, Interesting)
Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
Not Level3 (Score:5, Informative)
Am I the Only One... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Am I the Only One... (Score:5, Funny)
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Sounds like someone's a little ticked. (Score:2)
Shotguns (Score:5, Funny)
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Funny, but makes the idea of running fiber through the sewers [slashdot.org] sound pretty good from a security standpoint. There, I've done it -- let the fiber/sewer jokes begin again.
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What else would you use for carrying CRAP like spam?
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Transfer -> $10 -> From -> Savings -> To Checking
*Processing*
FLUSH!
Current balance: $10,842,239.12
"Holy #$*#($@! Withdraw! Withdraw!"
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By the way, adding fiber is a good way to unclog your pipes.
Gansta Rappa's (Score:5, Funny)
is that how all gun owners talk? (Score:2)
Re:is that how all gun owners talk? (Score:5, Funny)
Violent video games DO cause violence (Score:2)
You can have my fiber... (Score:5, Funny)
I guess the internet really is the Wild West (nt) (Score:2)
Imagine (Score:5, Funny)
What is the implication? (Score:2)
guns don't kill the internet, people do! (Score:2)
Does this mean the internet should be getting a bigger gun to defend itself with?
Jed Clampet was shootin' at some food ... (Score:2)
Seems to be (Score:2)
Anyway - this raises the question about how the network is actually arranged - too much star topology and not enough redundancy. Of course there are some problems that arises from setting up a redundant network like the possibility of circular packet routing. But if the design is done with care it shouldn't pose a problem.
A friend of mine suffered from the outage - no access to any service at all for a few hours - just when he needed it!
Great terrorist opportunity (Score:2)
ObPrincess Bride (Score:3, Funny)
How is this even possible? (Score:5, Insightful)
Shooting above ground cable doesn't have the penetration issue, but hitting that line 30 or more feet up is quite challenging as well. Any round that did hit however would stand a good chance of severing the cable altogether, making that section between poles simply fall to the ground at the severed end. There is still the problem of firing multiple high powered rounds without making the local police unduly interested. Does anyone know for sure if this was above ground or underground cable? And is it maybe hunting season in Ohio? If the cables ARE above ground and in a rural area, then maybe some drunken yahoos thought it would be a good idea to use the cables as a target in some macho bullshit marksmanship test. Most hunting rounds can easily go a kilometer or more downrange and retain enough energy to sever cable, on the other hand, deliberately hitting a target that slender from a klick away is a feat even elite military snipers would likely find challenging. Drunken yahoos would have to be within tens of yards to have a hope in hell of achieving it. One or more drunken idiots repeatedly shooting off a rifle within sight of a road does tend to attract official notice even during hunting season in rural Canada.
Re:How is this even possible?(addendum) (Score:2)
It doesn't actually specify how many breaks the cable suffered, just that a 1.1 Km length was affected.
It's possible that it was one continuous piece 1.1 Km long that had one break. While this weakens my points, it doesn't entire negate them.
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Then some pellets continued to travel a km before making contact with something.
Not as unlikely as your scenarious, but not probable either. A full klick sounds a little long for a shotgun.. Although, shooting into a tube can do wierd things with range due to muzzle gas emmissions and so forth.
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of course (Score:5, Funny)
Well, duh. Their fiber's been all shot up. Of course they couldn't be reached.
Latency Kills (Score:2)
Story doesn't make sense (Score:5, Interesting)
This story doesn't make a bit of sense. They dug up some cable, and found it had been shot? Are they saying someone first dug it up, shot it, and then gave it a decent burial? That would be a lot of work. Does the cable perhaps run along a sewer tunnel, and someone crawled down the tunnel and shot up the cable over an interval of a kilometer? (Just be alert for a guy who's talking very loudly, and keeps saying, "Speak up, I can't hear you".) And no, a shotgun blast is not going to penetrate anything like a kilometer of cable if you shoot down the length of the cable.
I'm not saying it didn't happen, but this article tells me little more than that there was a cable outage, and that the cause can't be explained coherently. Maybe it was mice...they've been known to chew up fiber optics. But that wouldn't make a good headline, would it?
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Or could it be that the cable was not burried that deeply in the first place.
Montville, OH (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like... (Score:4, Insightful)
Perhaps the cable companies will sit up and start burying their cables now.
speed holes (Score:5, Funny)
"Play"? (Score:2)
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You're well on your way.
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While I am by and large against intrusive gun control, the poster had a point. The gun-rights lobby is guilty, as many others are, of reducing what ought to be nuanced and well-reasoned arguments into trite slogans that don't help any discussion of the issue. The problem becomes that through these slogans rank-and-file believers become a liability to the cause, as their parroting makes them and their position seem overly simplistic, naive, and unreasonable.
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We agree with your statement and find your terms acceptable.
-The MPAA/RIAA Coalition against Net Neutrality
Re:don't forget the mantra now (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Wait, wait, wait. (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.teliasoneraic.com/tsicWeb/tsic/section
something new! (Score:4, Funny)
It was all a misunderstaning (Score:5, Funny)
hawk
Re:Wait, wait, wait. (Score:5, Funny)
"In a bizarre story coming out of Ohio, A Mr. Johanson allegedly went on a shooting spree. He shot out every window in his house, blasted his mailbox, walked down to the corner gas station and shot up a pump, shot out several street lights, and finally shot up a section of fiber cable. When finally captured and confronted by police, he claimed he was cleaning his rifle when it accidently went off."
{Nods to George Carlin as the source of this joke...}
Article is wrong, it was Cogent not Level3. (Score:5, Informative)
Over on the NANOG mailing list, which has a lot of people from the major U.S. backbones and networks subscribed to it, it is being reported/said that the line was Cogent's, not Level 3's, and that Cogent at one point had an advisory up about it.
Lots of people posted traceroutes that seem to confirm that it was definitely Cogent that took the hit. Packets were basically going all over the place on their network yesterday, and people who had fixed their routers to prefer Cogent over other backbones (apparently Bell) were having some slowdowns as a result.
See http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg02483
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That's because all those idiots are holding their guns sideways when shooting.
I've yet to figure that one out yet!! Where did they get the idea that was a good way to aim??
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What you NEED is bullet control.
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I cast bullets bullets and load cartridges by the thousands in my shop. The tools and materials are simple and cheap.
Ammunition control would be nearly as big a time & resource sink for the government as it's current campaign to stomp out the production and distribution of a certain popular, easy to grow, weed.
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What about primers and propellant? Not being a smart-ass... those are just a lot harder to make yourself, that's all.
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Really? It seems to me that the vandal who did this had very good gun control.