The FBI is investigating not one, not five, but eleven different attacks on the San Francisco Bay Area’s Internet system. This isn’t your typical attack.
This attack was physical, not cyber. This attack messed up internet cables 11 times going back to about a year. According to the FBI, the first of these attacks took place in July 2014. This attack disrupted the Internet for businesses and residential homes alike. The disruptions went as far as Sacramento, the state capital and 88 miles from downtown San Francisco. In one very recent attack, the culprit broke into a vault underground and cut several fiber optic cables. What makes this so concerning is that these fiber optic cables are the lifeblood of the information super highway. If you infect, disrupt, or tamper with the lifeblood, then the rest of the body, in this case the whole Internet, is going to suffer. In this latest attack, the fiber optic cables tampered with belong to Colorado based service providers called Level 3 and Zedo. ?Unfortunately, this case isn’t unique. Earlier this year someone cut through Arizona cables and cut off Internet services for tens of thousands. In 2009 California, underground fiber optics were deliberately cut. This virtually killed Internet and cell phone service for three heavily populated Southern California counties.
But what’s scary is we don’t know who is responsible for these attacks. What’s even scarier is they don’t have a motive. Authorities believe the culprit(s) are dressing up as utility workers using utility workers’ tools to break in and cut the cables. This could be a disgruntle employee. But something tells me this is far more sinister. Isn’t it bad enough that we’ve got cyber criminals trying to wipe out corporations and the shoppers therein? And what about international enemies who want to do harm? I wonder what would happen if a group of enemies decide to cut off fiber optics all over the country at once? Some may say, “That’s too far fetched.” Is it really though?