----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 12:00 PM
Subject: Re: The Backhoe: A Real Cyberthreat?
While it is always fun to call the government stupid, or anyone else for
that matter, there is a little more to the story.
- For one you do not need a backhoe to cut fiber
- Two, fiber carries a lot more than Internet traffic - cell phone, 911,
financial tranactions, etc. etc.
- Three, while it is very unlikely terrorists would only attack telecom
infrastructure, a case can be made for a telecom attack that amplifies a
primary conventional attack. The loss of communications would complicate
things quite a bit.
I'll agree it is very far fethced you could hatch an attack plan from FCC
outage reports, but I would not call worrying about attacks on
telecommunications infrastructure stupid. Enough sobriety though, please
return to the flaming.
I would tend to disagree on that depending on how detailed those reports
are. For example, if they indicate that junction X will hinder / disable
communications to sector/grid Y, then yes, it could be a serious threat if
you have police, fire, hospitals, etc on that section of the grid.
Mike P.
