Backbone Infrastructure and Secrecy

Mailman List Mirror (Read Only)
1

Maybe you guys in the US
are historically more paranoid, but London is just covered in single

points

of major failure for telecoms.

I think London is rather more paranoid. I work in London and just on
Monday
I was stopped by police at Tower Hill tube station and searched for
explosive paraphernalia as part of their programme of random searches.
When
I told people about this in the office, several others had stories about
friends who had been detained or searched within the city for one reason
or
another.

At least in London, the strong arm of the law is only exercised in
locations
where there really is important infrastructure. In the USA in the past
year
I've travelled through half a dozen airports and the most intense
searching
scrutiny was when leaving the smallest ones, Eugene OR and Memphis TN.

I don't believe that it would be as easy as you say for someone to open
manholes, cut cables (very thick cables of glass and tough plastics), then

run on to the next location. Certainly, in London, anything like this
would
be picked up on CCTV and the police would be rapidly dispatched to
investigate.
Yes, the single points of failure abound, but getting access to them for
evil purposes is not as easy as it looks.

--Michael Dillon

2

Thus spake <Michael.Dillon@radianz.com>

In the USA in the past year I've travelled through half a dozen airports
and the most intense searching scrutiny was when leaving the smallest
ones, Eugene OR and Memphis TN.

I've been to an airport (MLU) where the TSA employees even outnumbered the
passengers by a fair margin. Your tax dollars at work!

Of course, point defenses are only useful at the weakest points... Who's
going to try sneaking a bomb or weapon past hand-searches, X-ray machines,
dogs, etc. when you can climb an unguarded, unmonitored 8ft fence, walk
right up to a bunch of planes sitting on the tarmac, and plant your package?

I don't believe that it would be as easy as you say for someone to open
manholes, cut cables (very thick cables of glass and tough plastics), then
run on to the next location. Certainly, in London, anything like this

would

be picked up on CCTV and the police would be rapidly dispatched to
investigate.Yes, the single points of failure abound, but getting access

to

them for evil purposes is not as easy as it looks.

If you drove up in a telco service truck and wore the appropriate uniform,
it's unlikely you'd ever get challenged in the US.

In Dallas, most utility manholes are "locked" but it's a common key for all
utilities. In the denser areas every single block has power, gas, and phone
interconnect/tap vaults accessible from the street or sidewalk. The trick
isn't getting access; the trick is figuring out which of the hundreds of
thousands of manholes has something worth attacking.

As someone else noted, the local "Call Before You Dig" folks are far more
useful (and accurate) than any printed maps you're likely to get from the
utilities. If you're looking to do damage with a backhoe, they'll come
paint a bright-orange bulls-eye on your target for free.

S

Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking

3

I think London is rather more paranoid. I work in London and just on
Monday
I was stopped by police at Tower Hill tube station and searched for
explosive paraphernalia as part of their programme of random searches.
When
I told people about this in the office, several others had stories
about friends who had been detained or searched within the city for
one reason or
another.

Maybe I don't look like a tourist :wink: but this doesn't happen to me ...

OK, so as a fat geek in shorts and a t-shirt I look "mostly harmless".

I don't believe that it would be as easy as you say for someone to
open manholes, cut cables (very thick cables of glass and tough
plastics), then
run on to the next location. Certainly, in London, anything like this
would
be picked up on CCTV and the police would be rapidly dispatched to
investigate.

Hmm. I have direct evidence (of my own eyes) to the contrary. No one cares.
Luckily, in this case, those who had the manhole covers up were 'borrowing'
some ducting from one side of the road to the other. Does anyone from the
Goodge St. area recall ? I know the one person at least is on the mailing
list :slight_smile:

Yes, the single points of failure abound, but getting access to them
for evil purposes is not as easy as it looks.

Until it happens.

Peter