Russian diplomats lingering near fiber optic cables

Thu Jun 1 18:56:45 UTC 2017

That's how we found the Russian's fiber cables:

"According to “Blind Man’s Bluff,” Bradley, in his predawn stupor, recalled from his youth written signs that had been posted along the Mississippi River to mark undersea cables. The signs, posted along the shore, were meant to prevent passing from hooking the cables with their anchors. With this in mind, Bradley reasoned that there had to be similar signs near the shallower points on the Sea of Okhotsk."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/10/26/as-russia-scopes-undersea-cables-a-shadow-of-the-united-states-cold-war-past/?utm_term=.48dbf7c289af

 -mel beckman

> On Jun 1, 2017, at 11:33 AM, Brandon Vincent <Brandon.Vincent at asu.edu> wrote:
> 
> DO NOT ANCHOR OR DREDGE is a pretty good indicator.
> 
>> On Thu, Jun 1, 2017 at 11:05 AM, Jared Mauch <jared at puck.nether.net> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Jun 1, 2017, at 2:02 PM, Sean Donelan <sean at donelan.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> There must be a perfectly logical explanation....  Yes, people in the industry know where the choke points are. But the choke points aren't always the most obvious places. Its kinda a weird for diplomats to show up there.
>>> 
>>> On the other hand, I've been a fiber optic tourist.  I've visited many critical choke points in the USA and other countries, and even took selfies :-)
>>> 
>>> 
>>> http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/01/russia-spies-espionage-trump-239003
>>> 
>>> In the throes of the 2016 campaign, the FBI found itself with an escalating problem: Russian diplomats, whose travel was supposed to be tracked by the State Department, were going missing.
>>> 
>>> The diplomats, widely assumed to be intelligence operatives, would eventually turn up in odd places, often in middle-of-nowhere USA. One was found on a beach, nowhere near where he was supposed to be. In one particularly bizarre case, relayed by a U.S. intelligence official, another turned up wandering around in the middle of the desert. Interestingly, both seemed to be lingering where underground fiber-optic cables tend to run.
>>> 
>>> According to another U.S. intelligence official, “They find these guys driving around in circles in Kansas. It’s a pretty aggressive effort.”
>>> 
>>> It’s a trend that has led intelligence officials to conclude that the Kremlin is waging a quiet effort to map the United States’ telecommunications infrastructure, perhaps preparing for an opportunity to disrupt it.
>> 
>> Seems it would be easier to just pay for a subscription to a service like FiberLocator or similar.
>> 
>> They could just dial 811 as well and request the locates happen.
>> 
>> - Jared