To Talk of Many Things: Of Vandals, and Cuts, and Cables, and Pings
The time has come,’ the Walrus said,
To talk of many things:
Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax —
Of cabbages — and kings —
And why the sea is boiling hot —
And whether pigs have wings.’
(Excerpt, Lewis Carroll’s The Walrus and the Carpenter)
Here’s an open information security topic worth examining more closely: the recent vandalization of yet another fiber optic cable on the west coast.
A total of eleven cuts have been made since last July on fiber optic cables in the greater San Francisco/Oakland area. The most recent cut occurred on June 30th. The FBI had already asked the public for help with information about the first ten cuts, made in these general locations at the time and date indicated here:
1) July 6, 2014, 9:44 p.m. near 7th St. and Grayson St. in Berkeley
2) July 6, 2014, 11:39 p.m. near Niles Canyon Blvd. and Mission Blvd. in Fremont
3) July 7, 2014, 12:24 a.m. near Jones Road and Iron Horse Trail in Walnut Creek
4) July 7, 2014, 12:51 a.m. near Niles Canyon Blvd. and Alameda Creek in Fremont
5) July 7, 2014, 2:13 a.m. near Stockton Ave. and University Ave. in San Jose
__________
6) February 24, 2015, 11:30 p.m. near Niles Canyon Blvd. and Mission Blvd. in Fremont
7) February 24, 2015 11:30 p.m. near Niles Canyon Blvd. and Alameda Creek in Fremont
__________
8) June 8, 2015, 11:00 p.m. near Danville Blvd. and Rudgear Road in Alamo
9) June 8, 2015, 11:40 p.m. near Overacker Ave and Mowry Ave in Fremont
__________
10) June 9, 2015, 1:38 p.m. near Jones Road and Parkside Dr. in Walnut Creek
The FBI presented these first ten cuts as a single, undivided list. After looking at the dates and times, one can see these cuts may have occurred not as discrete events, but as three separate clusters of cuts. The first cluster occurred within a five-hour span; the second occurred nearly simultaneously at two points; and the third cluster occurred within three hours. The three clusters took place after dark, during the same evening. The tenth cut may be a one-off, or it may be connected to the third cluster as it took place within 14 hours of the eighth and ninth cuts.
The most recent cable cut, occurring this week, did not fit a pattern like the previous ten cuts. Reports indicate the cut was near Livemore — a new location much farther to the south and east in comparison, and only one cut reported rather than two or more.
Is this latest cut an outlier, or were perpetrators interrupted before they could cut again?
Taking a closer look at the previous cut events, we can see there must have been more than one individual involved in the cuts, and they may have been coordinated. Read more →