Code name "Killer Rabbit": New Sub Can Tap Undersea Cables

[Tyler Durden]

No! Undersea?

Do you take a copy of EVERYTHING and send it back? That might have been more 
feasible in the old days, but when a single fiber can run 64 wavelength 
optically amplified 10 Gig traffic, I really really doubt it. Or at least, 
this would require an undertaking large enough that I doubt they could hide 
it.

If they select some traffic then we have to ask, how do they select the 
traffic? Even there the mind boggles thinking about the kinds of gear 
necessary.

I suspect it's a combination of all sorts of stuff...remember too that all 
that traffic has to land somewhere, so theoretically they can access a good 
deal of it terrestrially. What you might see, therefore, is a sheath coming 
out of, say Iran, is tapped for fibers that proceed on to other unfriendly 
nations, and a copy of the traffic pulled back to some nearby land-based 
station in a friendly country (so that lots of amplifiers aren't needed).

I'd bet you do see the occasional Variola suitcase, though, requiring a sub 
visit once in a while. But I bet they avoid this kind of thing as much as 
possible, given the traffic volumes.

-TD




>From: Matt Crawford <crawdad at fnal.gov>
>To: crypto <cryptography at metzdowd.com>
>CC: osint at yahoogroups.com, cypherpunks at al-qaeda.net
>Subject: Re: Code name "Killer Rabbit":  New Sub Can Tap Undersea Cables
>Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 12:33:56 -0600
>
>On Feb 18, 2005, at 19:47, R.A. Hettinga wrote:
>>"It does continue to be something of a puzzle as to how they get this 
>>stuff
>>back to home base," said John Pike, a military expert at 
>>GlobalSecurity.org.
>
>I should think that in many cases, they can simply lease a fiber in the 
>same cable.  What could be simpler?