nanog mailing list archives

Re: Fiber cut - response in seconds?


From: Paul Wall <pauldotwall () gmail com>
Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 17:12:51 -0500

On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 7:50 AM, Dave Wilson <richard.wilson () senokian com> wrote:
No. And here's why: If you're a naughty foreign intelligence team, and
you know your stuff, you already know where some of the cables you'd
really like a tap on are buried. When you hear of a construction project
that might damage one, you set up your innocuous white panel truck
somewhere else, near a suitable manhole. When the construction guy with
a backhoe chops the cable (and you may well slip him some money to do
so), *then* you put your tap in, elsewhere, with your actions covered by
the downtime at the construction site. That's why the guys in the SUVs
are in such a hurry, because they want to close the window of time in
which someone can be tapping the cable elsewhere.

Sounds like a lot of work to me. Wouldn't it be easier to just find the carrier
neutral colo facilities where all the peering/transit between major networks
happens, and pay them money to put up a fake wall that you can colo your
optical taps behind?

Drive Slow, and remember, don't open any doors that say "This Is Not An Exit",

Paul Wall


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