On Wed, 15 November 2000, Ran Atkinson wrote:
At 19:40 15/11/00, Sean Donelan wrote:
The NCS supposedly has a database showing all AT&T, MCI, Sprint, and LEC fiber routes in the country so when the Pentagon orders diverse circuits to a missle silo, they know if it is really diverse.
Chuckle. And they probably think it is accurate and complete, too. :-)
That's why they have HF radios and satellites :-) No one is safe. Yep, NORAD had their "diversely routed, triple-redundant" cables cut in the past too. I asked one of the major credit card processing companies how they do maintain diversity. The answer, they have an inhouse department whose full-time job is verifying the route diversity of their circuits because they haven't had much luck relying on carriers to deliver. Its not a matter of paying for it, or having enough money. They have a lot of money, and still can't get reliable diversity. I do not know of any way to order a circuit, and have an assurance it will remain physically diverse for the life of the circuit. You must constantly monitor it, regularly audit it, and keep NTP records so you can tell when the speed of light changes on the circuit. And even then you can't be sure because the carriers' own records often aren't accurate enough to tell if the circuit is physically diverse.