Fwd: [Clips] Re: The Backhoe: A Real Cyberthreat?

[Tyler Durden]

Back when I was in Telecom we used to talk about how silly most terrorist 
attacks are, at least in terms of real damage: The COs are only barely 
guarded...a few well placed surprises could have an impact that far exceeds 
mere PR.

As for Graph theory that isn't really necessary...most of the big telecom 
Rings have been publically documented. The trick, however, is to ensure you 
hit both sides of the ring. If there's a big-ass 1000-fiber sheath, however, 
you will need a backhoe.

The interesting thing is that packetized traffic (combined with optical 
layer protection) might makes things even less disruptable...

-TD

>From: coderman <coderman at gmail.com>
>To: cypherpunks at jfet.org
>Subject: Fwd: [Clips] Re: The Backhoe: A Real Cyberthreat?
>Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 11:01:40 -0800
>
>there are other easy ways to obtain outage information, especially
>when the fiber affected handles significant amounts of traffic.  they
>have stemmed the tide of outage information but more than enough gets
>by to be useful for this type of analysis.  (although it was much
>easier to just hit up the FCC for history when they kept track of it.
>the telcos are just as glad to keep this data secret - they pushed as
>hard as uncle sam to hide this data)
>
>and as mentioned below, it doesn't take a backhoe either.  highly
>capable portable power tools, post hole diggers, a myriad of other
>construction equipment, could wreak havoc just as easily.  (Milwaukee
>V28 portable saws are a good example - some disgruntled telco
>employee(s?) in canada used a portable saw to cut two long distance
>cables into the US causing over 280,000 circuits to go dead)
>
>the tricky part is identifying redundant paths/rings as both must
>usually be interrupted to create significant outage. (graph theory
>applied to directed high degree node/link attacks)
>
>there is a reason they are pursuing security through obscurity so
>heavily.  sometimes it's all you've got... :)
>
>
>--- begin forwarded text
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>From: R. A. Hettinga <rah at shipwright.com>
>Date: Jan 19, 2006 10:06 AM
>Subject: [Clips] Re: The Backhoe: A Real Cyberthreat?
>To: Philodox Clips List <clips at philodox.com>
>
>--- begin forwarded text
>
>   Delivered-To: nanog-outgoing at trapdoor.merit.edu
>   Delivered-To: nanog at trapdoor.merit.edu
>   Delivered-To: nanog at segue.merit.edu
>   Delivered-To: nanog at nanog.org
>   Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 13:00:43 -0500
>   From: sgorman1 at gmu.edu
>   Subject: Re: The Backhoe: A Real Cyberthreat?
>   Cc: nanog at nanog.org
>   Sender: owner-nanog at merit.edu
>
>
>
>   While it is always fun to call the government stupid, or anyone else for
>that matter, there is a little more to the story.
>
>   - For one you do not need a backhoe to cut fiber
>   - Two, fiber carries a lot more than Internet traffic - cell phone, 911,
>financial tranactions, etc. etc.
>   - Three, while it is very unlikely terrorists would only attack telecom
>infrastructure, a case can be made for a telecom attack that amplifies a
>primary conventional attack.  The loss of communications would complicate
>things quite a bit.
>
>   I'll agree it is very far fethced you could hatch an attack plan from 
>FCC
>outage reports, but I would not call worrying about attacks on
>telecommunications infrastructure stupid.  Enough sobriety though, please
>return to the flaming.
>
>
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Joe Maimon <jmaimon at ttec.com>
>   Date: Thursday, January 19, 2006 12:01 pm
>   Subject: Re: The Backhoe: A Real Cyberthreat?
>
>   >
>   >
>   >
>   > Dennis Dayman wrote:
>   >
>   > > "In 2004, Department of Homeland Security officials became
>   > fearful that
>   > > terrorists might start using accidental dig-ups as a road map
>   > for deliberate
>   > > attacks, and convinced the FCC to begin locking up previously
>   > public data on
>   > > outages. In a commission filing, DHS argued successfully that
>   > revealing the
>   > > details..."
>   > >
>   > > --MORE--
>   > >
>   > > http://wired.com/news/technology/0,70040-0.html?tw=wn_tophead_1
>   > >
>   > > -Dennis
>   > >
>   > >
>   > >
>   >
>   > This is really stupid. Assuming the terrorist actually have the
>   > dozens
>   > of backhoes needed to completely erase meaningfull internet
>   > connectivity
>   > in north america, they would probably prefer to use them to smash
>   > cars
>   > and kill people on the interstate highways or something.
>   >
>   > Terrorist inflict terror by killing people, not by forcing
>   > internet
>   > explorer to display "page cannot be displayed".
>   >
>   > Let us not assume that murderous terrorist are as dumb as people
>   > in DHS.
>   >
>
>--- end forwarded text
>
>
>--
>-----------------
>R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
>The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
>44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
>"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
>[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
>experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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