Fiber cut - response in seconds?

Tue Jun 2 18:16:54 UTC 2009

Encryption is insufficient - if you let someone have physical access for a long enough period, they'll eventually crack anything.  Encryption makes the period of time longer, but let them try?

As regards "roving," we are talking about Tyson's Corner here: that's pretty close (< 5km) to major offices of lots of folks who would care deeply about such matters.

David Barak
Need Geek Rock?  Try The Franchise: 
http://www.listentothefranchise.com

--- On Tue, 6/2/09, Charles Wyble <charles at thewybles.com> wrote:

> From: Charles Wyble <charles at thewybles.com>
> Subject: Re: Fiber cut - response in seconds?
> To: "nanog at nanog.org" <nanog at nanog.org>
> Date: Tuesday, June 2, 2009, 1:57 PM
> Cheaper?
> 
> To quote sneakers.... were the united states govt. we don't
> do that sort 
> of thing.
> 
> Martin Hannigan wrote:
> > It would also be cheaper to add an additional layer of
> security with
> > encryption vs. roving teams of gun toting manhole
> watchers.
> > 
> > YMMV,
> > 
> > Best!
> > 
> > Marty
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > On 6/2/09, Deepak Jain <deepak at ai.net>
> wrote:
> >>> No. And here's why: If you're a naughty
> foreign intelligence team, and
> >>> you know your stuff, you already know where
> some of the cables you'd
> >>> really like a tap on are buried. When you hear
> of a construction
> >>> project
> >>> that might damage one, you set up your
> innocuous white panel truck
> >>> somewhere else, near a suitable manhole. When
> the construction guy with
> >>> a backhoe chops the cable (and you may well
> slip him some money to do
> >>> so), *then* you put your tap in, elsewhere,
> with your actions covered
> >>> by
> >>> the downtime at the construction site. That's
> why the guys in the SUVs
> >>> are in such a hurry, because they want to
> close the window of time in
> >>> which someone can be tapping the cable
> elsewhere.
> >>>
> >>> At least that's what I heard. I read it
> somewhere on the internet.
> >>> Definitely. Not at all a sneaky person. No
> sir.
> >> And if you were a naughty foreign intelligence
> team installing a tap, or a
> >> bend, or whatever in the fiber contemporaneously
> with a known cut, you could
> >> also reamplify and dispersion compensate for the
> slight amount of affect
> >> your work is having so that when its tested later,
> the OTDR is blind to your
> >> work.
> >>
> >> Ah, the fun of Paranoia, Inc.
> >>
> >> Deepak Jain
> >> AiNET
> >>
> >>
> > 
> > 
> 
> 