On Tue, 8 Mar 2022, Michael Thomas wrote:
Hi, I was reading an article on why Russia hasn't taken out Ukraine's mobile networks and one of the premises was that they could use it to eavesdrop on calls.
During World War I, the British Empire did this. It strategically cut telegraph cables with Germany to force telegraph traffic to other cables which the British Empire could monitor. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42367551 However, that is an obsolete strategy. It is occasionally used since WWII. Other than in Hollywood movies, nation-states have other less obvious ways to eavesdrop on civilian infrastructure. It might still be used for so-called 'black fiber' (military circuits), which is different than 'dark fiber.' Non-state actors are more likely to target civilian telecommunications infrastructure, e.g. the Taliban used to blow up cell towers in Afghanistan until the telco agreed to shutdown cell service during certain hours. Disclaimer: I don't know current russian military doctrine.