Internet chaos expected in some parts of the World

[DaveyR]

I've just been sent a link to this. It just shows how delicate things can be and how the unexpected can cause chaos.

Looks like some members from Eastern areas may not be around for a while.

 

[dong20]

I read about this a day or so ago, it reminded me of a couple of years back when some builders dug up a clients leased line with a JCB and tried to pack it down to hide it, only on a rather larger scale!!!

 

[B_Think_Kink]

Bummer, that really is delicate. They could like control the entire internet world by cutting it off.

 

[earllogjam]

I'm not too suprised how precarious the civilized world is when a company like Enron can make a few selective phone calls and causually wreak economic disaster inflicting roving blackouts throughout the country.

I'm sure the infrastructure for worldwide internet connections are as sound as America's power grid.

 

[Principessa]

I just read about this on the Google news site. Talk about a freak accident! Or was it . . .



Internet Outage Hits Middle East, South Asia

By Challiss McDonough
Cairo
31 January 2008
McDonough report - Download (MP3) [URL]http://www.voanews.com/voanews_shared/images/audio_icon.gif [/URL]
McDonough report - Listen (MP3) [URL]http://www.voanews.com/voanews_shared/images/audio_icon.gif </SPAN>[/URL]


Internet speeds have slowed to a crawl in much of the Middle East and parts of South Asia after two underwater telecommunications cables were damaged Wednesday in the Mediterranean Sea. The problems are also affecting telephone service in some places, and many businesses are struggling to work around the outages. VOA Correspondent Challiss McDonough has more from Cairo.

Damage done early Wednesday to two underwater telecommunications cables in the Mediterranean Sea has reduced Internet capacity in Egypt by 60 percent, and by about 50 percent in Saudi Arabia and India. Large sections of the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia were entirely without Internet access on Wednesday, and authorities say it could take a week to fix the problem and get service back to normal.

In some places, international telephone service has also been affected.

Authorities are still not sure how the two undersea cables were damaged, but one theory is that they were hit by a ship's anchor.

The disruption to telecommunications has affected businesses throughout the Middle East and South Asia, including India's lucrative customer-service call-center industry. Slowdowns were reported on the Dubai stock exchange Wednesday, but backup measures kicked in Thursday to bring things mostly back to normal.

Local companies say although their productivity is being affected by slow Internet speeds, they are relieved that the total outage was limited to a single day.

The Bahna Engineering Company of Egypt does a lot of business with foreign companies and international joint ventures, and on Wednesday its staff found themselves scrambling to deal with orders and contract tenders via fax machines and telex.

"I think if it had gone any longer than it did, if they had not started fixing it by today, then it would have been a major problem," said George Bahna, one of the company's directors.
The telecommunications problems are affecting countries from Egypt to India and in between, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Analysts call the outage "a wake-up call" regarding the vulnerability of the communications technology infrastructure in the region. They say governments should take steps to protect it.

Some places, however, appear to have been better-prepared.
"I work out of Internet City where we have a good backup system whenever this situation does arise," said Rola Zaarour, a communications manager for the Intel Corporation based in Dubai. "And because I work for a technology company, we have our own systems that ensure that we are not affected by such outages, so I would say that our business has not been affected at all by this outage."

The lengths that some large multi-national companies go to in order to avoid being crippled by a major Internet outage illustrates the degree to which modern companies depend on their telecommunications systems.

Bahna says it is virtually impossible to do business these days without the Internet.

"It has really changed the way that the entire world works, I mean communications in general," said Bahna. "Look at mobile phones, for example. I remember before mobile phones, and everyone managed to get along just fine."
"But now if you take my mobile phone away from me for two days, I am totally lost. I don't know, I think culture has changed because of that - not only business culture but social culture, the way that people interact and the way that people run their lives has been affected greatly by the technology," he added.

Egyptian officials say the cables appear to have been cut north of the port city of Alexandria, but bad weather prevented boats and divers from being able to get to the area right away to assess the damage.

 

[B_stanmarsh14]

Just had word from two of my admins @ TVeps who are middle east baised, and whilst one admin in Iran is fine, the other over in Bahrain is having shit loads of issues with connecitivaty

Submarine cable cut torpedoes Middle East access | The Register

 

[2322]

In theory the internet should re-route but the problem is commercial providers haven't focused on redundancy necessary to make it so. As anyone who has worked in the commercial sector can attest, businesses hate redundancy. Why spend all that money for something you might not need?

Good to see you posting again Davey! Missed you're cute mug around here :smile:.

 

[EagleCowboy]

I'm not too suprised how precarious the civilized world is when a company like Enron can make a few selective phone calls and causually wreak economic disaster inflicting roving blackouts throughout the country.

I'm sure the infrastructure for worldwide internet connections are as sound as America's power grid.

A little bit of that was Enron. Most of that was their traders making a fortune for themselves by doing that.
I never have to worry about power failure from an outside source or unscrupulous traders as I have my own full time generator. The utility company here *HATES* me having it.

 

[2322]

Interesting. Two more cables which serve the middle east have experienced cuts as well. That sounds most improbable. I wonder if this isn't some sort of planned event?

Third undersea Internet cable cut in Mideast.

 

[2322]

A fourth undersea cable, linking Qatar to Dubai, was cut today and it has been determined that ships are not the cause. Somebody is cutting the lines of communication in and out of the middle east.

Is this a prelude to an invasion?
Is it terrorism?
Is it a dry-run for terrorist planning something similar for North America, the UK, or Australia?

Speculation?

 

[dong20]

A fourth undersea cable, linking Qatar to Dubai, was cut today and it has been determined that ships are not the cause. Somebody is cutting the lines of communication in and out of the middle east.

Is this a prelude to an invasion?
Is it terrorism?
Is it a dry-run for terrorist planning something similar for North America, the UK, or Australia?

Speculation?

Yes. Let's email someone in the Mid east to ask what's happening. No, wait.

Other reports say it was taken offline due to power issues rather than cut. Some nice conspiracy stuff about this here...

But seriously, that's very interesting if it was cut/sabotaged, and not in a good way.

 

[2322]

Let's hope they don't allow Star Wars in Iran.

 

[2322]

Oh come on! Do you know what it took to find that wav?:biggrin1:

Let's hope they don't allow Star Wars in Iran.

 

[dong20]

Oh come on! Do you know what it took to find that wav?:biggrin1:

I bet. You'll like this.

4um: Is Our Puppet Preznit Getting Ready for an Imminent Attack on Iran?

Remember folks, you heard it here first.

 

[dong20]

A fourth undersea cable, linking Qatar to Dubai, was cut today and it has been determined that ships are not the cause. Somebody is cutting the lines of communication in and out of the middle east.

Is this a prelude to an invasion?
Is it terrorism?
Is it a dry-run for terrorist planning something similar for North America, the UK, or Australia?

Speculation?

This may shed some light...though it seems to be mainly speculation.

Undersea cables 'cut by saboteurs' - vnunet.com

This is along the conspiracy lines.

More network cables cut in Middle East - vnunet.com

This suggests how vulnerable they are.

Undersea cables 'highly vulnerable' - vnunet.com

 

[bobabooey69]

God forbid I have to step away from my computer and go outside....maybe a nice month long internet outage might be an eye opener.