Spam war? No. Cyber-sabotage? Yes

[Cain]

You may remember internet issues yesterday were being attributed to a war between a NATO bunker and prolific spammers.

Unfortunately, this may not be the case, as news out of Egypt is suggestive of another cause.

CNet News:

Egypt's naval forces arrested three divers cutting through an undersea Internet cable today, the country's military representative said, raising the possibility that saboteurs are behind severed lines and days-long Internet disruptions.

A coast-guard patrol stopped a fishing boat near Alexandria and arrested three men "while they were cutting a submarine cable" line belonging to Telecom Egypt, the country's main communications company, Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali said on his official Facebook page. The page offered no details on the divers' identities, according to published reports.

Egypt has long been known as a central node for the world wide web, with its cables connecting several continents together.  If anyone wanted to disrupt the internet, for whatever reason, the undersea cables would be the place to hit.

I for one am very interested in what the motivations of these divers might be.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

You may remember internet issues yesterday were being attributed to a war between a NATO bunker and prolific spammers.

Unfortunately, this may not be the case, as news out of Egypt is suggestive of another cause.

CNet News:

Egypt's naval forces arrested three divers cutting through an undersea Internet cable today, the country's military representative said, raising the possibility that saboteurs are behind severed lines and days-long Internet disruptions.

A coast-guard patrol stopped a fishing boat near Alexandria and arrested three men "while they were cutting a submarine cable" line belonging to Telecom Egypt, the country's main communications company, Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali said on his official Facebook page. The page offered no details on the divers' identities, according to published reports.

Egypt has long been known as a central node for the world wide web, with its cables connecting several continents together.  If anyone wanted to disrupt the internet, for whatever reason, the undersea cables would be the place to hit.

I for one am very interested in what the motivations of these divers might be.

ARound what time did this happen?

[Cain]

Yesterday.  That's all I know.  Before 9am or so, East Coast time, because the story was put up at 16:00 UK time.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Yesterday.  That's all I know.  Before 9am or so, East Coast time, because the story was put up at 16:00 UK time.

The interruptions had started prior to 6:30AM MST, which is, IIRC, 9:30AM EST, so you might be on to something.

But who would do that? 

[Cain]

A very good question.  Unfortunately, I don't have any answers.  I'm going to hit up some people I know later and see if they have anything, though the chances are pretty slim.  Egyptian military feeds info via the Pentagon and Langley, where I don't have many friends, and where current affairs issues are hard to get a guage on.

It would seem stupid, for a state-backed venture, unless a state could be certain such downtime would negatively affect its peers more than itself.  But then most states are not run by people with a good grip on how the internet works in the first place, so, I don't know.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

A very good question.  Unfortunately, I don't have any answers.  I'm going to hit up some people I know later and see if they have anything, though the chances are pretty slim.  Egyptian military feeds info via the Pentagon and Langley, where I don't have many friends, and where current affairs issues are hard to get a guage on.

It would seem stupid, for a state-backed venture, unless a state could be certain such downtime would negatively affect its peers more than itself.  But then most states are not run by people with a good grip on how the internet works in the first place, so, I don't know.

Very interesting.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

A very good question.  Unfortunately, I don't have any answers.  I'm going to hit up some people I know later and see if they have anything, though the chances are pretty slim.  Egyptian military feeds info via the Pentagon and Langley, where I don't have many friends, and where current affairs issues are hard to get a guage on.

It would seem stupid, for a state-backed venture, unless a state could be certain such downtime would negatively affect its peers more than itself.  But then most states are not run by people with a good grip on how the internet works in the first place, so, I don't know.

Fucking Syria.  It's the only thing that fits.  Other than spastic hilarity like North Korean frogmen or some such brain-damaged shit.

[Cain]

Yeah, maybe.  Assad still controls the Syrian ports, cutting off the internet wouldn't hurt him as bad as it would hurt the rebels, or their international backers and their attempts to coordinate.  His back's to a wall, UNLIMITED DATA aint much consolation.

I think if it's not that, it may be non-state in origin.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Yeah, maybe.  Assad still controls the Syrian ports, cutting off the internet wouldn't hurt him as bad as it would hurt the rebels, or their international backers and their attempts to coordinate.  His back's to a wall, UNLIMITED DATA aint much consolation.

I think if it's not that, it may be non-state in origin.

The combat communications of the modern battlefield is the smartphone.  Killing the web is a emminently sensible move, if you have large amounts of military radios.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Am I missing something here or could this be a second bullshit story to cover up whatever the hell is really happening? Just what net effect would some cable in africa have on the US internet? Spamhaus DNS I can see but Egypt? What am I missing?

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

Traffic that should have gone through the damaged pipeline would be shuffled elsewhere, causing problems. (At least I think that's the answer)

[Cain]

I'm not an expert on internet infrastructure but that sounds basically right, yeah.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Traffic that should have gone through the damaged pipeline would be shuffled elsewhere, causing problems. (At least I think that's the answer)

Yeah. That, and the fact that there actually was an attack happening at the same time measuring in the kind of bandwidth that actually could take down a few of the primary Internet routers. I don't know if the events are related at all, and I'm more interested in these bastards cutting actual physical cables to be honest, since that's the kind of shit that no amount of upgrading or reconfiguration is going to alleviate.