Have they asked No-Such-Agency?
No-Such-Agency typically taps communication lines by "back-hoe accident" of some sort on the path they are interested in tapping. That way they can install a tap "over yonder" while the victim telecom is attempting to repair the original damage. I guess this time is taking longer than expected so they FBI has been recruited to prevent the victim from completing repairs to quickly.
Then again, maybe my tinfoil hat is too tight.
Then again, maybe my tinfoil hat is too tight.
Recent history would seem to indicate that, if anything, most of us were skimping a bit on tinfoil.
That said, the recent cuts in CA have received a lot of attention and passed into the mainstream media; that seems, imho, a bit too public for the operations of a notoriously clandestine organization. With something this visible, people will want closure (read "someone to blame"). If it is the works of some three-letter agency, you either need a scapegoat that can be sold to the public, or the cuts just magically stop happening without a perpetrator being found. If the former, you need a fall man or someone you don't like and against whom you can amass enough fabricated evidence to convict. The latter is basically conspiracy theory gold, and at this point may start bubbling up into hearings on "securing critical network infrastructure" etc.
I guess the alternative is that there is a pre-existing sabotage operation in progress, and a three-letter agency then decides to piggy-back on that and do some taps under the cover that provides ("oh, those dasterdly fiber cutters again!"), but that also would seem pretty risky if the original crew gets busted: "They admit to all of the cuts except that one in SJ. Weird... *shrugs*"
At any rate it would seem like idle speculation at this point. IDK; at this point if you need privacy ensured, it's probably best to just assume your "private" lines aren't private and just crypto all the things.
I'm gonna go with "too tight."
My main reason is that there's no need for our three-lettered friends
to risk themselves this way. It's far easier to invite specific
highly-placed employees of the communications company for a series of
meetings in a secure facility, after which the cable is rerouted
through an access-controlled room at one of its endpoints. No muss, no
fuss.
Then too, if they really do have to tap a cable, it's not like they
have to break it first. Dig it up mid-span, quietly let out slack from
the nearest vaults and nick the cladding on each fiber. Your link
gains half a db of loss (which you aren't actively monitoring anyway)
and their tap reads your data.
http://www.thefoa.org/tech/ref/appln/tap-fiber.html
Also, I think it more likely this is one of the angry anti-tech folks
in SF. Have you not heard about the tension between old-school
residents and the new tech workers who are driving up prices for
everything and basically driving everybody else out of town?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bus_protests
Regards,
Bill Herrin