[OT] Re: Fiber cut in SF area

Sun Apr 12 03:37:00 UTC 2009

Christopher Morrow <morrowc.lists at gmail.com> writes:

> and I also would ask.. what's the cost/risk here? 'We' lost at best
> ~1day for some folks in the outage, nothing  global and nothing
> earth-shattering... This has happened (this sort of thing) 1 time in
> how many years? Expending $$ and time and people to go 'put padlocks
> on manhole covers' seems like spending in the wrong place...

as long as the west's ideological opponents want terror rather than panic,
and also to inflict long term losses rather than short term losses, that's
true.  in this light you can hopefully understand why bollards to protect
internet exchanges against truck bombs are not only penny wise pound foolish
(since the manholes a half mile away won't be hardened or monitored or even
locked) but also completely wrongheaded (since terrorists need publicity
which means they need their victims to be fully able to communicate.)
-- 
Paul Vixie