This conversation is quickly spinning into discussion of politics and terrorism. Reminder to all, please stick to the *operational* aspects of this thread. -alex [NANOG MLC Chair] On Mon, 4 Feb 2008, Patrick Clochesy wrote:
I disagree... I think "information warfare tactic" could easily be terrorism, though I can't see why this particular event could/would be terrorism.
Disrupting a major network like the Internet WITHIN the US could definitely be a form of terrorism... I think anything which maliciously disrupts a huge portions of a nation's day-to-day activities would be cause for concern for many folk, especially the telecommunications infrastructure. However, I'm not sure what the mindset of the terrorist would be even if they fully succeeded what is proposed would be the terrorist's plan - even if we lost totally connectivity with the middle east, or even what's considered "friendly" countries... as long as the information is flowing at home, nobody's going to be filling their swimming pools full of drinking water.
I imagine the mindset would be different if you were a small country loosing a substantial portion of it's communication channels with the outside world...
-Patrick
----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Newton" <newton@internode.com.au> To: "Martin Hannigan" <hannigan@gmail.com> Cc: "Sean Donelan" <sean@donelan.com>, nanog@merit.edu Sent: Sunday, February 3, 2008 11:12:46 PM (GMT-0800) America/Los_Angeles Subject: Re: Fourth cable damaged in Middle Eest (Qatar to UAE)
On 04/02/2008, at 4:38 PM, Martin Hannigan wrote:
I agree with Rod Beck as far as the speculations go. It could be terror,
Well, no, it couldn't be. Nobody is being terrorized by this. How can it possibly be a terrorist incident?
If it's deliberate, it might be described as an "information warfare tactic." But not terrorism.
(visions of some guy sitting a in cave with a pair of wet boltcutters laughing maniacally to himself, cackling, "Ha-ha! Now their daytraders will get upset, and teenagers will get their porn _slower_! Die American scum!" Doesn't really work, does it?)
Politicians have succeeded in watering down the definition of the word "terrorism" to the point where it no longer has any meaning. But we're rational adults, not politicians, right? If we can't get it right, who will?
- mark