[outages] CenturyLink fiber cut between Modesto, CA and San Jose, CA this AM.. Start time 4:26AM PST

Thu Jul 2 15:26:26 UTC 2015

>Then again, maybe my tinfoil hat is too tight.

Recent history would seem to indicate that, if anything, most of us were 
skimping a bit on tinfoil.

That said, the recent cuts in CA have received a lot of attention and 
passed into the mainstream media; that seems, imho, a bit too public for 
the operations of a notoriously clandestine organization.  With something 
this visible, people will want closure (read "someone to blame").  If it is 
the works of some three-letter agency, you either need a scapegoat that can 
be sold to the public, or the cuts just magically stop happening without a 
perpetrator being found.  If the former, you need a fall man or someone you 
don't like and against whom you can amass enough fabricated evidence to 
convict.  The latter is basically conspiracy theory gold, and at this point 
may start bubbling up into hearings on "securing critical network 
infrastructure" etc.

I guess the alternative is that there is a pre-existing sabotage operation 
in progress, and a three-letter agency then decides to piggy-back on that 
and do some taps under the cover that provides ("oh, those dasterdly fiber 
cutters again!"), but that also would seem pretty risky if the original 
crew gets busted:  "They admit to all of the cuts except that one in SJ.  
Weird... *shrugs*"

At any rate it would seem like idle speculation at this point.  IDK; at 
this point if you need privacy ensured, it's probably best to just assume 
your "private" lines aren't private and just crypto all the things.

--
Hugo

On Wed 2015-Jul-01 13:02:19 -0400, Keith Medcalf <kmedcalf at dessus.com> wrote:
>
>Have they asked No-Such-Agency?
>
>No-Such-Agency typically taps communication lines by "back-hoe accident" of some sort on the path they are interested in tapping.  That way they can install a tap "over yonder" while the victim telecom is attempting to repair the original damage.  I guess this time is taking longer than expected so they FBI has been recruited to prevent the victim from completing repairs to quickly.
>
>Then again, maybe my tinfoil hat is too tight.
>