[OT] Re: Fiber cut in SF area

Sun Apr 12 03:59:30 UTC 2009

On Sat, 11 Apr 2009, Lamar Owen wrote:

> The locking covers I have seen here put the lock(s) on the inside cover cam
> jackscrew (holes through the jackscrew close to the inside cover seal rod
> nut), rather than on the outside cover, thus keeping the padlocks out of the
> weather.

  I'm starting to wonder what makes more sense -- locking down
  thousands of miles of underground tunnel with mil-spec expensive locks
  that ideally keep unauthorized people out, OR simple motion and or video
  cameras in the tunnels themselves which relay their access back to a
  central facility, along with a video feed of sorts, to help identify who
  is there, whether approved or not.

  With locks, you know they gained access after the fact and that your
  locking wasn't sufficient enough.  With active monitoring of the area
  where the cables live, you at least know the moment someone goes in, and
  have some lead time (and maybe a video) to do something to prevent it, or
  catch them in the act.

  Unfortunately, that kind of monitoring is also expensive and complex.  I
  wonder what the cost of the outage was, and how much it might cost to
  monitor it?  Would it be worth $2,000 per site per year?
  A great webcam, with day/night capability, and a cell phone, in a locked
  box, with a solar panel, on top of a pole, near the site.  Sure, if you
  know it's there, taking it out is easy, but someone will still know
  something is wrong when it goes dark or the picture changes significantly.

  Are there some low-cost, highly-effective ways that the tunnels which
  carry our precious data and communications can at least be monitored
  remotely?  Waiting for someone to cut a cable and then deploying a crew
  seems reactive, whereas knowing the moment someone goes INTO the tunnel is
  proactive, whether the person(s) are there to do some normal maintenance
  or something malicious.

Beckman

  I suppose rats and other rodents could cause such a system to be too
  annoying to pay attention to.

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Peter Beckman                                                  Internet Guy
beckman at angryox.com                                 http://www.angryox.com/
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