Vandals Slash Silicon Valley Fiber Optic Cable
Vandals Slash Silicon Valley Fiber Optic Cable
Posted 04/10/2009 at 6:01am
| by Paul Lilly
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Things turned semi-chaotic yesterday in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and San Benito counties in California when it was discovered that ten fiber optic cables were purposely cut by vandals. At leaston one of the lines that were cut belongs to AT&T, whose lines were declared national Critical Infrastructure following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. That means whoever is responsible for the vandalism is in violation of both federal and state laws, and to help make sure that they're caught, AT&T is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever did it.
More than 50,000 landline customers lost service as a result of the cuts, including both residential and business customers, as well as connections for ATMs, internet, and bank card transactions. Hospitals, stores, banks, police and fire departments who rely on 911 calls, computerized medical records, and more were all affected.
Anyone with information that could lead to the capture of those responsible is being asked to call 408-947-7867 or 650-802-4423.
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rayatwork05
April 13, 2009 at 5:12am
"from acts of terrorism"
GET A GRIP! somebody cut some cable lines....not a big deal....if your THAT reliant on internet and electronic communication, you're probably going to have a very rough life.
luckily it has inside job written all over it, and their is much accountability for these things. we'll have an arrest within the week.
FYI: get with the times, and purchase a cell phone. (not to say the radio towers werent connected too)
xs0u1x
April 10, 2009 at 3:54pm
paul, you and naythan always have the best picture commentary for your posts. good job!
lmao
comptech08
April 10, 2009 at 12:57pm
@picture
"No I am suppose to kill the bus driver."
"What bus driver?"
CRASH
lol i love that movie
Keith E. Whisman
April 10, 2009 at 11:28am
You guys are forgetting about the people that suffered without these lines. The 911 service was unavailable. People drive like crazy and crash because they know help is just a 3digit call away. How many car accidents were there that went without help from the police and medics? What about people at their homes and work that were injured and required immediate medical attention that was unavailable because of these acts of terrorism.
Although ultimately when it comes to crime, you are responsible to fend for yourself. 911 cannot protect you from becoming a crime victim. I hope alot of people had guns during the outage because that would have been the best time to commit crimes. The criminal knowing that the phone lines were down would commit the crime(s) and get away knowing that the cops wont find out about the crime for a long while. Memories fade quickly and evidence disappears by the minute. The longer a witness has to wait the less likely they are willing to stick around to make a statement.
Now does anyone deserve what happened or does your hatred for AT&T and the Iphone more important than the real victims of what happened?
comptech08
April 10, 2009 at 12:08pm
why is their very little redundancy with the 911 network? How could cutting some cables take it all down in that area? I find it hard to believe they did not have backup lines. Now if they didnt have backup lines shame on them for not being prepared.
Keith E. Whisman
April 10, 2009 at 12:27pm
They got the main fibre optic lines. The big boys. The really big bundle of fibre optic lines.
These things are usually under ground along side the sewer lines. Half of the people you see going into manholes in the streets are actually going down into the utility lines. So someone had to go underground to destroy these things.
It's part of the infastructure for the phone and cable lines. These things are usually but not always government subsidized. That means all these lines were layed with our tax dollars and through subscriber fees and government guarantee of zero competition in their market area.
That's why if you want cable in Phoenix you have plenty of choices as long as they are Cox Cable. And plenty of phone providers as long as it's Qwest.
Vegan
April 10, 2009 at 10:08am
With so many emergency services relying on this one little cable, it's a shame to think that people probably died because of this.
VoodooChicken
April 10, 2009 at 9:37am
So... how do I call the hotline if my service is gone? Hypothetically. I'm not even in California, I'm in Texas. We don't put up with this cybervandalism stuff. Now malfunctioning oil refineries is something entirely different.
----------------------------------------------------------
Look behind you! A THREE-headed monkey!!!!!!!!
jcollins
April 10, 2009 at 11:18am
Well, if you're going after the 100k reward, I'm assuming you'll find a way to call that hotline... :)
DMI PC Repair
April 10, 2009 at 9:19am
When you can't hack them, just cut them. It's a shame that it happened but from what I hear they had it coming.
adam1378
April 10, 2009 at 7:00am
Probably the cable company, have the optics cut and claim how reliable their service is.
maniacm0nk3y
April 10, 2009 at 6:50am
Even though it's a criminal act AT&T they deserve it. Too bad nothing will change for them. Their crappy ToS, I believe that they are the ones with the new "improved bandwidth cap" BS rolling around in some cities. Afraid that streaming video will destroy their cable. They just need to wake the **** up.
jcollins
April 10, 2009 at 9:29am
I believe you are thinking about Time Warner Cable cable with their bandwidth cap. Not saying that AT&T doesn't have one/thinking about one for their DSL, but just to get things straight.
Rob86
April 10, 2009 at 9:53am
im pretty sure your right i dont think At&t has tried to cap bandwidth yet. time warner on the other hand sucks ass and has started doing that. i really hate them as an ISP and its worse cause they are really the only one in my area who provides broadband....... unless i want 368k dsl
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