Posted on 10/26/2015 8:11:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The presence of Russian submarines and spy ships near undersea cables carrying most global Internet communications has U.S. officials concerned that Russia could be planning to sever the lines in periods of conflict, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
The Times said there was no evidence of cable cutting but that the concerns reflected increased wariness among U.S. and allied officials over growing Russian military activity around the world.
The newspaper quoted naval commanders and intelligence officials as saying they were monitoring significantly greater Russian activity along the cables' known routes from the North Sea to Northeast Asia and waters closer to the United States.
“It would be a concern to hear any country was tampering with communication cables; however, due to the classified nature of submarine operations, we do not discuss specifics,”
U.S. Navy spokesman Commander William Marks told the Times.
Last month, the United States closely monitored the Russian spy ship Yantar, which equipped with two self-propelled deep-sea submersible craft, cruised off the U.S. East Coast toward Cuba, where one cable lands near the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, according to the Times.
Naval officials said the ship and the submersible craft were capable of cutting cables miles (km) deep beneath the sea, the Times said.
While cables are frequently cut by ship anchors or natural disasters and then quickly repaired, Pentagon officials are concerned that the Russians seem to be looking for vulnerabilities at much greater depths where cable breaks are harder to locate and repair, the paper said.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Radio waves travel AT the speed of light. The distance between Earth bound electomagnetic waves (radio) and orbiting satellites is almost unmeasurable. Plus, it's cable communications have to deal with many choke points or amplifiers due to resistance in the physical wiring system. Fiber optic undersea cables are actually slower than bouncing the same comms off a satellite, so I've read. Although they are more difficult to intercept.
That's why many advanced nations are looking to target satellites. But then, I could be wrong.
It’s not just latency. Satellite bandwidth is extremely limited compared to that provided by fiber optic cable bundles. We’re talking tens of terabits worth of capacity. International Internet traffic would feel like we’re back in the days of dial-up modems of that all had to go via satellite.
“Why on Earth would they cut something they can tap into? Intercepting data and injecting misleading data are far more valuable tricks than cutting one data route off.”
Last I checked the USA was a global service economy heavily dependent on outsourcing of services, a global provider of services, and heavily dependent on and extended, global supply chain for imports. Russia is a provider of natural resources, with and overlay of manufacturing that is no too dependent on a outside manpower. Cutting the undersea data cables would hurt Russia a lot less than the other global powers.
I for one think our reliance on outsourced services and imports is a strategic weakness. If an attack on the global data infrastructure is going to happen I hope it is sooner rather than later because we get more vulnerable every year.
If the cables are cut there will be a very large number of corporations that will not be able to function until the damage is fixed or until these corporations insource their IT infrastructure, IT personnel, and manufacturing. If We enter World War III with multiple major powers you can say goodby to a stable and functioning global internet until the conflict is resolved. There will be a lot wage inflation of Americans unless the socialists can impose “patriotic” labor controls and salary freezes.
“With this and a few air bursts over the United States we’ll all be back in the stone age.”
Its ok, I’ve been through several ends of the world. They all work out ok. A new ice age, the population bomb, Carters end of oil, nuclear war any day, Y2K, Hale Bopp, 2012, Nostradamus, the 3rd seal of Lourdes, global warming, bird flu, and now climate change and the melting of the poles,
Now its air burst EMPs.
And I agree, flint knapping isn’t something to pick up easily. I think there should be enough scrap iron around to make out arrow points outta that. :)
Guess that was a waste of time in the 70s building 15,000 bombs. All they needed was 3 or 4.
Watching a NY cable TV person talk to someone via satellite, there can be a up to couple of seconds delay, seems like. When the studio talker stops and then starts again he ends up stepping on the person on the other end who thinks it’s his time to answer.
This delay can be a short quarter second, hardly noticeable or a lot longer if it gets, I assume, bounced up to a satellite and down to a ground based station then back up again a couple of times.
Russia is probably not nearly as leveraged with new technology as we are, they probably still train their troops to use older methods not reliant on newer technology.
This is where the US could be at a huge disadvantage in a future conflict.
“Both activities are regulated by Fedzilla and probably carry the death penalty. I haven’t really kept track of the million pages of laws in the last couple years.”
Didn’t even think of that. Shattering a stone, and killing a Buffalo. Both would clearly be death penalty offenses.
“Why on Earth would they cut something they can tap into? Intercepting data and injecting misleading data are far more valuable tricks than cutting one data route off.”
To Russia it would be the equivalent of closing down Voice of America. Plus it shuts down any outbound traffic about the situation on the ground.
"Ping."
If the satellites in question are in geosynchronous orbit, a round trip would be roughly 50K miles. Since light travels 186K miles/sec, a satellite ping would never be less than about .27 seconds. You might be correct.
“Guess that was a waste of time in the 70s building 15,000 bombs. All they needed was 3 or 4.”
The civilian world is less robust than the military world. An EMP burst would destroy any diode junction that wasn’t protected by design. Cell phones, car computers, the commercial electric grid would all be gone. What has changed between then and now is the Soviets never dressed up their children in bomb vests and sent them out to be martyrs. Obama has armed Iran with nukes and prevented the Israelis from stopping that insanity. The Iranians are not the Soviets. They worship death. How long before they blow up a city or EMP the west just because they can? Obama has trained them that there are no penalties.
Yes, I remember the other end of the world scenarios you mentioned. (I’d forgotten a few.) The difference I see is they were imaginary and I knew that at the time. There is nothing imaginary about the people who will soon be armed with nukes and an insane seventh century religion. We haven’t faced anything like them since, well, the Crusades.
Don’t tell me the cloud’s not in the sky.”
I have always said that somewhere up in the sky is a huge trash bag which includes three of the Spiegel catalogs I was expecting several years ago, lots of checks which were to be “in the mail” to me and many emails which were supposedly sent to me but never received. Cloud storage? I’m not sure. Seems like you can’t trust any advertising any more.
“There will be a lot wage inflation of Americans unless the socialists can impose “patriotic” labor controls and salary freezes.”
Which of course, will not affect Congressfools, CEOs, and anyone above the blue collar level.
If they were really worried about it they wouldn’t be saying anything in public. They must want something or are just trying to keep the WWIII meme rolling.
Okay this has gone too far....now one of our oceans has gone pervert.
This country needs an enema!!!!
Great catch, The Media is still juxtaposing the Old Russia mindset on the populace and in truth many here and in my mind older folks (like me) who remember the Old Russia still cling to that image as that is what the media sells
And keeps us from looking at what is going on once we have removed the “lens of thought” installed along the way
Devious
Skynet 1, Mankind 0...
Yes the Russkies would be cutting their own internet access. The Russians are living rent free in the US military heads.
My checks all got 'lost in the mail' going the other way. From me to the payee. :) Thus, I tell them "The checks's in the mail!"
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