Fiber cut in SJ

Mon Aug 8 00:25:55 UTC 2005

Stephen,

The point I'm trying to make is that over classifying everything as 'secret'
or 'confidential' at this late date is useless. The horse is already out of
the barn. 

You can omit the site of a fiber backhoe accident from an email and say it's
due to security concerns, but I can call any telecom vendor who sells SONET
or metro ethernet services and get them to fax me a map of their network. At
the very minimum all I have to do is keep an eye out for USA markings on the
street. Or I could call USA and the next day people with paint cans would be
marking up the street, showing me exactly where to dig.

If someone wants to cause trouble, the information they need is freely
available. The so-called security provisions most telecom companies use are
just enough to deter curious teen-agers.

On 8/7/05 8:15 AM, "Stephen J. Wilcox" <steve at telecomplete.co.uk> wrote:

> 
> 
> On Sat, 6 Aug 2005, Joe McGuckin wrote:
> 
>> 
>> On 8/5/05 8:12 PM, "George William Herbert" <gherbert at retro.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> First, an electrical contractor backhoed a large fiber
>>> link in downtown San Jose (address deleted due to security
>>> concerns) this morning, causing moderate damage.
>> 
>> That's just plain silly. As if we (or even your imagined 'terrorist') don't
>> know where the fiber runs around here.
> 
> well.. theres lots of ducting going down streets but not that many folks know
> which of them are the major cable routes, i think keeping specific detail
> discrete is reasonable
> 
> in a fire near where i am a couple years ago:
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/10/23/arson_suspected_in_manchester_cable/
> 
> it seemed a bit of a coincidence that both the active and protect paths of a
> major sdh route got hit in this attack and it took out a lot of long distance
> circuits
> 
> Steve
> 

-- 

Joe McGuckin

ViaNet Communications
994 San Antonio Road
Palo Alto, CA  94303

Phone: 650-213-1302
Cell:  650-207-0372
Fax:   650-969-2124