Third incident of internet cable breakage

[Francois Cellier]

From the Money Times

Third incident of internet cable breakage

by Abhishek Garg
February 3, 2008


Another incident of Internet cable breakage has been reported with a cable Falcon, owned by Reliance Communications, India, going down around 56 kilometers (35 miles) from Dubai, between Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

This is the third such incident in a span of three days, with two earlier breaks, FLAG Telecom's FLAG Europe-Asia cable and SeaMeWe-4 being noticed in Internet traffic carrying cables deep under Mediterranean Sea. It resulted in a massive slow down of the Internet in many parts of Asia and Africa.

It resulted in about 60% traffic slow down in web access in India and 80% in Egypt hitting various businesses and leading to huge losses for many firms. But this time India has not been affected much by the broken cables as the Falcon cable does not carry India-specific traffic.

The owner of the cable FLAG Telecom, a part of India's Reliance Communications has not yet confirmed the exact reason for the cable breakage. A repair ship has already been sent and is expected to arrive at the site within the few coming days.

The repair work is expected to be completed in almost 10 days. Following previous breaks, the internet traffic in India and other parts of Asia had already been re-routed to different routes.

The worst hit is the outsourcing industry and banking as they are totally dependent on the Internet communication especially for the clients based in UK and US. It employs 700,000 people, serving clients mainly in the United States and Europe that sought to cut costs by getting the work done out of the country.

India's 11-billion-dollar outsourcing industry is made up of 1,250 firms that deliver services ranging from answering customer queries to processing credit card and mortgage applications.

Smaller Indian firms will be harder hit as they depend on a single service provider, said R.S Perhar, Secretary of the Internet Service Providers' Association of India (ISPAI) after the previous incident.

Even the common man has been affected by all this as internet has become an integral part of the lives of the people and it becomes really frustrating when someone is not able to do his work just because the Internet service is down.

This Internet crisis has opened our eyes on what is the power of the modern Internet. It connects the whole world and has the potential of affecting businesses globally. The main problem is that it is still dependent on physical cables, which is against the common belief that it all depends on wireless and satellite.

Some extra measures need to be taken in order to escape such situations in future. These include having extra lines of cable and a well constructed plan that can provide backup facility to such immediate crisis.

[Francois Cellier]

There are rumors spreading over the Internet right now that these seemingly independent "accidents" were no accidents at all. Some sources say that the one country most affected by these cuts is Iran, and that there is currently no communication into or out of Iran at all.

I have very little time now, i.e., I can't really check out these sources, but if true, this is important.

If this were indeed a deliberate sabotage by the U.S. preparing for an immediate (possibly nuclear) attack on Iran, hoping to prevent any information coming out of Iran until "the dust has already settled" (in the most literal sense of the word), this would indeed constitute most urgent information to be passed on.

Usually, I would check my sources first before spreading such rumors any further, but as you all know, I am currently in Argentina teaching an intensive class, and therefore, I have hardly any time to follow the news at all.

Let's hope it is all just the tin-foil hat syndrome, but something smells badly here, and it ain't my socks.

[Mr.Sillypants]

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.p...xt=va&aid=7993

Ships did not cut internet cables: Egypt

Global Research, February 3, 2008
ABC

Ships are not responsible for damaging undersea internet cables in the Mediterranean, Egypt's Government says.

Two cables were damaged earlier this week in the Mediterranean sea and another off the coast of Dubai, causing widespread disruption to internet and international telephone services in Egypt, Gulf Arab states and South Asia.

A fourth cable linking Qatar to the United Arab Emirates was damaged on Sunday causing yet more disruptions, telecommunication provider Qtel said.

Egypt's transport ministry said footage recorded by onshore video cameras of the location of the cables showed no maritime traffic in the area when the cables were damaged.

"The ministry's maritime transport committee reviewed footage covering the period of 12 hours before and 12 hours after the cables were cut and no ships sailed the area," a statement said.

"The area is also marked on maps as a no-go zone and it is therefore ruled out that the damage to the cables was caused by ships."

Earlier reports said that the damage had been caused by ships that had been diverted off their usual route because of bad weather.

A repair ship is expected to begin work to fix the two Mediterranean cables on Tuesday.

------------------------------------------------------

Four damaged cables , all in different areas and at different times.I think you are right Francois , there is something very strange going on.

.

[Dufrel]

We would also have to knock out satellite communication for that to be effective.

[The Mouth of Sauron]

Originally Posted by Francois Cellier

There are rumors spreading over the Internet right now that these seemingly independent "accidents" were no accidents at all. Some sources say that the one country most affected by these cuts is Iran, and that there is currently no communication into or out of Iran at all.

I have very little time now, i.e., I can't really check out these sources, but if true, this is important.

If this were indeed a deliberate sabotage by the U.S. preparing for an immediate (possibly nuclear) attack on Iran, hoping to prevent any information coming out of Iran until "the dust has already settled" (in the most literal sense of the word), this would indeed constitute most urgent information to be passed on.

Usually, I would check my sources first before spreading such rumors any further, but as you all know, I am currently in Argentina teaching an intensive class, and therefore, I have hardly any time to follow the news at all.

Let's hope it is all just the tin-foil hat syndrome, but something smells badly here, and it ain't my socks.

Absolute bollocks .

If the US intended nuking and/or invading Iran what difference would Iran's ability or inability to surf the Net make ?

[Mr.Sillypants]

slightly contradictory story from The International Herald Tribune.:-

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/...et-Outages.php

CNN's version ;-

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/...age/index.html

Interactive map of the cable :-

http://www.flagtelecom.com/index.cfm?page=4023

[Fredfredson]

As of now some .ir domains are still accessible.

F

[Fredfredson]

http://www.internettrafficreport.com/asia.htm

Iran has NO traffic at the moment!

Hmmm...

F

[clownboy]

Wouldn't be an effective move. Satellite still exists as Dufrel mentioned. And if we were going to use nukes, the resulting EMP would take care of communications.

[Laughing Gas]

http://uruknet.info/?p=m40831&s1=h1

The “No Internet in Iran” Story is Bullcrap, but that Didn’t Stop 17 People from Submitting it
cryptogon.com

February 4, 2008

I don’t expect people to know much about computers, but the story about Iran having no Internet access is complete nonsense.

It scares the living crap out of me that so many Cryptogon readers are propagating this nonsense without even trying to verify whether or not the story is true. (In fairness, one Cryptogon reader who submitted it later wrote that, by the same measure, Florida had no Internet services. HAHA)

The page that all of you are submitting monitors one router, which happens to be down, at the Iran University of Science and Technology. Somehow, through the magic bullshit amplification powers of the Intertubes, the fact that one router is down at an Iranian university has snowballed into "Iran is off the air."

Oh really?

Why not check out the Iran University of Science and Technology’s homepage?

http://www.iust.ac.ir
IP: 194.225.230.89
Machine Location: Tehran, Iran

How about the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs?

http://www.mfa.gov.ir
IP: 217.172.99.41
Machine Location: Tehran, Iran

How about the Central Bank of The Islamic Republic of Iran?

http://www.cbi.ir
IP: 217.218.174.178
Machine Location: Tehran, Iran

Hint: Don’t believe everything you read on Reddit and Slashdot.

[Francois Cellier]

From Al Bawaba

Who cuts undersea cables in the Middle East?

Posted: 05-02-2008 , 10:53 GMT


Internet connectivity still remains slow in several Middle East countries due to the cable damage near Egypt, Iran and Dubai. An improvement is not expected soon as operators claim there are many complexities involved in fixing the problem. In addition, all voice calls, corporate data and video traffic were also affected.

The first two cables, off Alexandria in Egypt, were cut on January 23. Over the weekend a looped cable in the Gulf waters was cut in two points, off Dubai and off Iran's Bandar Abbas. The cuts have raised many conspiracy theories on their reasons.

However, the International Cable Protection Committee, an association of 86 submarine cable operators dedicated to safeguarding undersea cables, has declined to speculate on the cause of the breaches, adding investigations were underway.

In the UAE, an estimated 1.7 million Internet users have been affected by the recent undersea cable damage, an expert said, quoting recent figures published by TeleGeography, an international research Web site. In the UAE, nearly 90 per cent of Internet traffic is routed through undersea cables and only 10 per cent is done through the satellite.

Quoting TeleGeography and describing the effect the cuts had on the Internet world, Mahesh Jaishanker, executive director, Business Development and Marketing, du, told Khaleej Times: “The submarine cable cuts in FLAG Europe-Asia cable 8.3km away from Alexandria, Egypt and SeaMeWe-4 affected at least 60 million users in India, 12 million in Pakistan, six million in Egypt and 4.7 million in Saudi Arabia.”

A total of five cables being operated by two submarine cable operators have been damaged with a fault in each. These are SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4) near Penang, Malaysia, the FLAG Europe-Asia near Alexandria, FLAG near the Dubai coast, FALCON near Bandar Abbas in Iran and SeaMeWe-4, also near Alexandria.

[Fredfredson]

I just did a traceroute to Tehran University and the traffic is going via the Transpacific cable through Singapore.

The POP at the Iranian end is a secondary and badly congested at this time.

The primary is still down.

F

[Fredfredson]

Flag plays down net blackout conspiracy theories
by Dylan Bowman on Monday, 04 February 2008

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/51023...theories?ln=en

INTERNET DISRUPTION: The Falcon network runs from Egypt to India, linking 11 countries in the region.Flag Telecom on Monday played down conspiracy theories over the recent damage to undersea cables that has seriously disrupted internet and international telecoms services across the region.

Two intercontinental cables connecting Europe and Asia were cut off the coast of Egypt on Wednesday, followed by breaks in two more cables off the UAE coast on Friday. Flag owns two of the affected cables.

The initial breaks affected internet access and international calls in Egypt, the Gulf and south Asia, while disruption resulting from damage to the latter two was centred around the Gulf region.

Story continues below ↓
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The location of the breaks and short space of time in which they have happened has sparked fears the cables were intentionally damaged by the US and Israel to deprive Iran of internet access.

"It seems now to be way beyond the realm of coincidence that a further 4th critical international communications cable should break within seven days," one ArabianBusiness.com reader commented.

"Clearly Iran, who was most affected, would gain nothing from such an action and is perhaps the target of those responsible," said another reader.

Those theories were fuelled further on Monday when Egypt said damage to the cables in the Mediterranean Sea was not caused by ships, as previously thought.

Egypt's Transport Ministry said footage recorded by onshore video cameras of the location of the cables shows no maritime traffic in the area when the cables were damaged.

"The ministry's maritime transport committee reviewed footage covering the period of 12 hours before and 12 hours after the cables were cut and no ships sailed the area," a statement by the Communications Ministry said.

"The area is also marked on maps as a no-go zone and it is therefore ruled out that the damage to the cables was caused by ships."

It is not clear how badly Iran's internet access has been affected by the cable breaks.

The Iranian embassy in Abu Dhabi told ArabianBusiness.com that "everything is fine", but internet connectivity reports on the web, citing a router in Tehran, appear to indicate that there is currently no connection to the outside world.

No one at the US embassy in Abu Dhabi was immediately available to comment.

A spokesperson for Flag said the cause of the breaks will not be known until repair ships reach the site of the damage.

The spokesperson admitted it did seem like a bit of a coincidence that all four were damaged within such a short space of time, but said it would be difficult to find the exact location of the cables.

"I think it is doubtful [the cable damage was intentional]," the spokesperson told ArabianBusiness.com.

Repair ships are expected to arrive at the site of the breaks in the Mediterranean on Tuesday and Friday.

The breaches are in segments of two intercontinental cables known as Sea-ME-We-4 and Flag Europe-Asia.

A ship was expected to depart Abu Dhabi port on Monday to fix the break in the third cable, called Falcon, off the coast of Dubai between the UAE and Oman.

The fourth break is located between the Qatari island of Haloul and the UAE island of Das. The cause of damage is not yet known, but ArabianBusiness.com has been told unofficially the problem is power related.

Internet problems continue with fourth cable break
Services in Qatar seriously disrupted by damage to cable linking Gulf state to UAE.

Internet crisis deepens
Third undersea cable break between UAE and Oman adds to web woes after two breaks just days earlier.

[Fredfredson]

Cable damage hits 1.7m Internet users in UAE
By Asma Ali Zain (Our staff reporter)

5 February 2008

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayA...section=theuae

DUBAI — An estimated 1.7 million Internet users in the UAE have been affected by the recent undersea cable damage, an expert said yesterday, quoting recent figures published by TeleGeography, an international research Web site.

Internet data was majorly affected as it is the biggest capacity carried by the undersea cables.

However, all voice calls, corporate data and video traffic were also affected.

Two du experts yesterday briefed the media on the current methods being undertaken by the telecom provider to re-route the Internet traffic to provide normalcy to the users.

Quoting TeleGeography and describing the effect the cuts had on the Internet world, Mahesh Jaishanker, executive director, Business Development and Marketing, du, said, “The submarine cable cuts in FLAG Europe-Asia cable 8.3km away from Alexandria, Egypt and SeaMeWe-4 affected at least 60 million users in India, 12 million in Pakistan, six million in Egypt and 4.7 million in Saudi Arabia.”

A total of five cables being operated by two submarine cable operators have been damaged with a fault in each.

These are SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4) near Penang, Malaysia, the FLAG Europe-Asia near Alexandria, FLAG near the Dubai coast, FALCON near Bandar Abbas in Iran and SeaMeWe-4, also near Alexandria.

The first cut in the undersea Internet cable occurred on January 23, in the Flag Telcoms FALCON submarine cable which was not reported. This has not been repaired yet and the cause remains unknown, explained Jaishanker.

A major cut affecting the UAE occurred on January 30 in the SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4). “This was followed by another cut on February 1 which was on the same cable (FALCON). This affected the du network majorly as connections from the Gulf were severed while there was limited connectivity within the region,” said Khaled Tabbara, executive director, Carrier Relations, du.

He explained that the network was re-routed through Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia and was near normal now.

Almost 90 per cent of Internet traffic is routed through undersea cables and only 10 per cent is done through the satellite.

The experts also suggested that the cause of damage could have been a ship’s anchor that was dragging due to inclement weather conditions in the region during that particular period. “About 60-80 per cent of damages to undersea cable are due to external factors and only 10 per cent on an average can be classified as component failure,” said Tabbara.

[potter]

[donquixote99]

Intentional damage: maybe.
By US: maybe maybe
As prelude to nuke attack: Francois, do not trust your own judgement re: the US. It is skewed. You can't hide a nuke attack, interfering with internet comms would confer no advantage. Your mind rushed to the worst thing you feared, with no particular logic.

If the US is interfering with the Internet, it's to keep certain people from using the internet for communication and planning and command and control, or else to apply coercion to someone. It is NOT to facilitate a nuke attack, I'm quite certain.

[Francois Cellier]

Probably not. I was (and still am) very much in a hurry ... and mentioned the potential of a tin-foil hat syndrome myself.

I meanwhile was able to confer with some people from the telecommunication industry. They say that there are about 50 incidents of cut deep-sea cables annually world-wide. Usually they don't attract media attention. This time they did, because the first two (off the coast of Alexandria) affected so many people.

It is still somewhat suspicious that there should be five cut cables within a single week, but the odds of it aren't negligible. There are similar statistics with airline accidents. Sometimes they come in bursts.

[donquixote99]

The common phrase, a 'cut' cable, seems to imply a deliberate act. Perhaps a 'cable break' would be a better phrase.

[Mr.Sillypants]

Saboteurs may have cut Mideast telecom cables: UN agency.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Feb 18 06:17 PM US/Eastern

Damage to several undersea telecom cables that caused outages across the Middle East and Asia could have been an act of sabotage, the International Telecommunication Union said on Monday.

"We do not want to preempt the results of ongoing investigations, but we do not rule out that a deliberate act of sabotage caused the damage to the undersea cables over two weeks ago," the UN agency's head of development, Sami al-Murshed, told AFP.

(Rest of the article and maps here) --->


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...=1&image=large

,

[donquixote99]

A Swiss security company discusses the military threat to cables some, but doesn't see the recent incidents as 'enemy action' (even though they meet the 3+ standard...)

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=18661