North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: photo: transatlantic cables coming ashore
On Fri, 8 Feb 2008, Scott Francis wrote: Ran across this at Wired today, and it seemed apropos to recent events: http://www.wired.com/culture/art/multimedia/2008/01/gallery_simon?slide=10&slideView=10 If you think about it, how many of the 1.5 trillion miles of telephone wires in the USA are "guarded?" How much is left in the open, hanging exposed on telephone poles, passing through unlocked manholes, etc, etc, etc. Sometimes people misunderstand how things actually work in the world. We don't have "secure roads." If you are going to ship valuable stuff over the highway hire a armored car, and plan multiple alternate routes. Likewise, the telecommunications network outside plant is pretty basic without any special protection unless you plan (and usually pay) for it. There are some telecommunication routes with pressurized conduits, special fiber optic laser monitoring to detect bending or tampering, and so forth. But I'm not sure how much of that James Bond stuff is just expensive or actually makes a difference for those particular subscribers. Or does all that security generate a lot of false alarms and ends up with a self-inflicted denial of service. Do you think the US Embassy in Moscow really trusts the Moscow telephone company?
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