(I wonder if these rats are the first line of a new wave of cyberterrorism?
:) -rick)
Rats take down Kiwi telecoms
By AAP
24 June 2005
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/0,2000061791,39198846,00.htm
Rats gnawing through cable helped cripple telecommunications services across
New Zealand for more than four hours, an investigation has found.
But the rodents will go unpunished as the telco instead goes after the
humans who were unwitting collaborators in the shutdown.
Telephone, mobile, Internet and eftpos services affecting about 100,000
customers were lost on Monday and the nation's stock exchange closed for
most of the trading day because of the outage.
The interruption occurred after two service pipelines on the North Island
were knocked out within hours of each other -- one by a power company
post-hole digger, the other by industrious rodents.
The rats attacked cable on a bridge north of Wellington protected by a steel
duct.
"Rodents being rodents, they gnaw at those entry points, they burrow
underground, they find a way in," Telecom New Zealand general manager of
network delivery Steve Fuller told the New Zealand Herald.
Powerless to take action against the rats for the "unavoidable" damage,
Telecom is seeking compensation from the electricity company it says is
responsible for knocking out the other pipeline, eliminating backup
services.
You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit
www.infowarrior.org for list information or to unsubscribe. This message
may be redistributed freely in its entirety. Any and all copyrights
appearing in list messages are maintained by their respective owners.
