‘Saboteurs’ may have cut Internet cables
Remember those internet cable disruptions in the Middle East a few weeks ago? Repair ships are on location:
Reports from those vessels have apparently indicated that [the cables] may not have been caused by accident or through natural events. According to the ITU’s (International Telecom Union) head of development, Sami al-Murshed, “We do not want to preempt the results of ongoing investigations, but we do not rule out that a deliberate act of sabotage caused the damage to the undersea cables over two weeks ago,”
Certainly this isn’t enough to ask who whodunit? An inquiry still must run its course, leaving open many possible cause(s). But if we are to accept this information as truthful–and coming from a spokesman of the guys looking at the cables we should– we can infer that those who have seen the cables say they were cut.
Net security guru Steve Bellovin has blogged his thinking on these incidents. “I don’t know what happened. As a security guy, I’m paranoid, but I don’t understand the threat model here. On the other hand, four accidental failures in a week is a bit hard to swallow, too.”
He’s right, I don’t see the motive in cutting undersea telecom cables either. Since the cables will be restored in a few days, these incidents can only be classified as an annoyance. It’s not clear who stands to benefit from a short-term disruption like that.
The US was fingered by many as being responsible for the cuts. Contrary to early reports, Iran was not knocked offline thus removing that scenario as a possibility. This blog noted that the US does have the capability to hijack undersea cables. Bellovin dismisses this notion considering “four failures at once will raise suspicions, and that’s the last thing you want when you’re eavesdropping on people.”
For now, the cable cuts are an unsolved mystery…
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