Backbone Infrastructure and Secrecy

Wed Jul 9 16:30:27 UTC 2003

Michael.Dillon at radianz.com wrote:
> However we can work to spread out the infrastructure more so that it
> is harder for terrorists to find a single point of failure to attack.
> If they have to coordinate an attack on 3 or 4 locations, there is an
> increased probability that something will go wrong (as on 9/11) and
> one or more of their targets will escape total destruction.

I hate to be a doom sayer, but any chump with a couple of tools and
rudimentary knowledge can lift manholes, cut cables and jump to another
location in minutes. No amount of diversity could defend against a concerted
attack like that unless you start installing very special low-level routes
away from street level into many many buildings. Maybe you guys in the US
are historically more paranoid, but London is just covered in single points
of major failure for telecoms.

Protecting the switching centres (IP or voice) looks great, but walk a few
hundred feet and all senblence of physical security breaks.

Peter