Comments on: Four Undersea Cables Cut In Middle East In Less Than a Week http://cubist.cs.washington.edu/Security/2008/02/05/four-undersea-cables-cut-in-middle-east-in-less-than-a-week/ Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:43:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: kurifodo http://cubist.cs.washington.edu/Security/2008/02/05/four-undersea-cables-cut-in-middle-east-in-less-than-a-week/#comment-346 kurifodo Thu, 07 Feb 2008 06:21:19 +0000 http://cubist.cs.washington.edu/Security/2008/02/05/four-undersea-cables-cut-in-middle-east-in-less-than-a-week/#comment-346 I have never heard of this kind of attack being attempted before, but it seems like a successful and costly one. Recently <a href="http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2008/February/theuae_February155.xml&section=theuae" rel="nofollow">another</a> cable was discovered severed on top of the four mentioned in this post. When you think about what you would have to do to recover from an attack like this, it seems like you would have to either drag up the line, repair it, and put it back in its place, or hopefully you could repair it underwater, but who knows how difficult that is. It was mentioned in the article above also that 90% of the internet traffic is routed through undersea cables and the rest through satellites, so this attack is very detrimental to the citizens of the supplied country(s). I am curious as to why someone would target these cables. Is there a motive beyond causing a massive headache to those affected? Judging by the scale of the attack, it would seem like there might be. I have never heard of this kind of attack being attempted before, but it seems like a successful and costly one. Recently another cable was discovered severed on top of the four mentioned in this post.

When you think about what you would have to do to recover from an attack like this, it seems like you would have to either drag up the line, repair it, and put it back in its place, or hopefully you could repair it underwater, but who knows how difficult that is. It was mentioned in the article above also that 90% of the internet traffic is routed through undersea cables and the rest through satellites, so this attack is very detrimental to the citizens of the supplied country(s).

I am curious as to why someone would target these cables. Is there a motive beyond causing a massive headache to those affected? Judging by the scale of the attack, it would seem like there might be.

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