----- Original Message ----- From: <sgorman1@gmu.edu> Cc: <nanog@nanog.org> Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 12:00 PM Subject: Re: The Backhoe: A Real Cyberthreat?
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.
I would tend to disagree on that depending on how detailed those reports are. For example, if they indicate that junction X will hinder / disable communications to sector/grid Y, then yes, it could be a serious threat if you have police, fire, hospitals, etc on that section of the grid. Mike P.