Underwater cables.

[luciusad2004]

Anybody here hear about the underwater cables connecting the internets in different countries getting cut?

http://gizmodo.com/353284/five-undersea-cables-cut-so-far

Anybody know anything about it?

[Airbozo]

Couple of days old. From what I heard a ship "accidentally" cut 2 cables while dragging their anchor. Now being an ex sailor, all the crew would have to be drunk and stupid to "forget" to pull the anchor up...

[IndyRacer27]

...all the crew would have to be drunk and stupid to "forget" to pull the anchor up...

Exxon Valdez the second?

[Zephik]

Couple of days old. From what I heard a ship "accidentally" cut 2 cables while dragging their anchor. Now being an ex sailor, all the crew would have to be drunk and stupid to "forget" to pull the anchor up...

Especially since thats such a huge no no that the captain can lose his job for doing such a thing. Its not a mistake anyone would make. IF someone did make that mistake, then everyone would know about it and it would be on everyones mind, so it wouldn't happen again.

I've heard that its now 4 cables thats been cut. It could be just dumb people spreading rumors though. I also read a comment that said it was five cables, but I don't think so, but maybe.

First time is an accident. Second time is a coincidence. Third time is sabotage. ...someone smarter than me said basically the same thing, I can't remember who though. :think:

[armadilloben]

they cut a fifth one today

ive also been following this story

ive got a real bad feeling and more than the obvious

its the feeling of no one seems to care about this much its isnt being mentioned alot in the news

but 5 is no accident ill tell you that

weird

[Zephik]

I need some reliable sources before I believe the 5th cable rumor to be confirmed. Anyone have any?

/lazy

[tinker]

proof (http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/06/cut-four-undersea-cables-shame-on-you-cut-a-fifth-also-shame)

I would have to agree with armadilloben.
This could potentially be a bigger problem than media are making it to be.
A lot of communication and databases rely on those wires.

After 5 being cut, it's obviously not a coincidence.

[Zephik]

Is khaleejtimes.com a reliable source? I've never even heard of it. :?

...nvm. Its published in Dubai. I doubt they would let someone in that is not reliable.

So what do you guys think this means?

[luciusad2004]

The question on my mind is: Who would cut them, and for what purpose. IF the number really is five, i agree that five is no accident. I'm surprised big media isn't covering this. Why wouldn't they? Does someone not want them to? Do they just not care? (They will care if it spreads to their hemisphere!) Is this an act of digital warfare? Who knows. I hope the truth comes out though. I have a feeling it wont.

[Quakken]

I sincerely hope that this is not the beginning of a war on iran perpetrated by the insane bush administration. But I don't think even they would be that daft... no, I actually think that it is extremists trying to cut off communications in muslim nations... with each other. Somehow, someone is trying to gain with this. This can't be an accident.

[chaksq]

This being some sort of attack makes total sense to me, how much do we all rely on our internet and computers day to day. Almost everything needs to use computers these days, even if some small company doesn't use the internet something else, a supplier, payroll, etc uses the internet. If there was a serious issue with the internet going down, even only for one day, I foresee very bad things happening in this country very quickly. Economy, communication, even law enforcement would all have serious issues.

In my personal life I'm seeing a lot of "signs" that I need to not rely on my computers as much. These major underseas cables getting cut, accidents or not, still causes serious issues. My school was cut off from the internet for about 90min real early this morning and incoming Internet traffic was rerouted overseas (can you say malicious). My school is very technical, although they are trying to play this incident off. Also this morning was class registration and at a very critical time where I needed it my laptop (only machine i used for school stuff) had it's HD fail which happened to destroy years of data, mostly I can live without but I did kinda want all the pictures I took. Personally I'm feeling like I need to cut my losses and severely minimize my use of computers.

[OvRiDe]

Just think of the ecological damage all those bits spewing into our oceans could cause.:eek:

If I was going to blame anyone it would have to be the RIAA and the MPAA in a joint strike against the evil p2p servers of those they have no control over!

Or maybe its Sir Elton Johns personal commandos carrying out his master plan? link (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070802/011353.shtml)

ok ok .. All jokes aside. Where as this can escalate into a serious matter, I honestly don't think its going to cause the internet to come to a screeching halt. Even if they were to completely cut all under sea cables, inner continental backbones would stay intact. Meaning schools could still operate, law enforcement would continue to catch the bad guys etc etc. The internet is a very redundant system on purpose. It is a system that encompasses the globe, so in order to say cut off the US from other parts of the world, it would take some one to cut the lines both east and west coast, Canada, Mexico and don't forget about the satellites, etc etc. True it could increase latency, and speeds might suffer. I think we can rest assured that our lives will change very little.

Still I must say that it is quite a coincidence that 5 lines have been cut. (If that has been verified as true yet).

Just my .02

[simon275]

5 cables are down now.

My money is on the cloverfield monster chewing on the cables.

[Ironcat]

Wow, I was hoping we were above conspiracy theories here... guess not...


Egyptian transportation authorities viewed footage of the sites off the coast of Alexandria and observed no ships or other vessels in the area 12 hours before or 12 hours after the cables were cut. The government announced that maritime traffic wasn't to blame for those two breaks, quashing the initial theory that the anchor of a passing ship had caused the damage.

"The area is also marked on maps as a no-go zone and it is therefore ruled out that the damage to the cables was caused by ships," a statement from Egypt's communications ministry said.

And no, it isn't 5 cables, it's still just 4.