April 6, 2009 vandals allegedly cut four (4) AT&T cables in an underground vault, just before 1:30am in South San Jose.  In addition, two hours later four (4) more cables were cut in San Carlos.  These severed fiber optic cables took down AT&T’s network in Silicon Valley, CA, while also affecting Verizon service and AboveNet connectivity throughout the area.  According to information reported by both Data Center Knowledge and Telecom Ramblings, the alleged intentional cut disrupted 911 emergency services in Santa Clara County, in addition to affecting phone – both landline and cellphone and Internet service to tens of thousands of people in the Santa Clara area.

Santa Clara County is considered one of the United States’ major data center hubs. And the greater Silicon Valley is also technology hub, where hundreds of developers, providers, operators and networks converge. 

Data Center Knowledge reported that an “AT&T spokesman John Britton told the San Jose Mercury News that it appears somebody opened a manhole in South San Jose, climbed down 8 to 10 feet and cut four or five fiber-optic cables. Britton said the four cables that were cut in San Jose were about the width of a silver dollar and were encased in tough plastic sheath. AT&T is now offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the incident. According to AT&T spokesman John Britton”  North American Network Operators Group (NANOG) has also opened up a discussion regarding the impact in the region, the link can be found here: http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/.

Is This A Sign of More to Come? 

Telecom Ramblings suggests that though the damage in this case was limited, ‘was this a dry run?’ 

It is common knowledge that there are major communication hubs throughout the United States where global, national, regional and local networks converge to interconnect with one another.  One of the real concerns should be coming from customers who perhaps should be assured their connections are traversed along protected rings that provide redundancy should there be a cable break, to ensure all communications are re-routed. 

“Hibernia Atlantic has been preaching about this threat for the past five years, warning the implications of a catastrophic network failure and its impact on national security, the banking/finance systems, communication and broadcast system,” commented Eric Gutshall, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Hibernia Atlantic, a client of JS&A.  Mr. Gutshall continues that “Hibernia also stated that there even needs to be national security for submarine cables and Cable Landing Stations, as well as terrestrial infrastructure in major communication hubs.  Our cable is purposely built outside of major metropolitan areas such as New York and London to provide more security as required by our customers.”   

According to the company, Hibernia Atlantic has engaged with the Department of Homeland Security to request they view Hibernia Atlantic’s submarine cable system and cable stations as critical infrastructure due to the high-volume of Financial, communication, broadcast, Government and Internet traffic that is handled by the company.

Hibernia Atlantic has designed its network with ‘Security and Diversity’ in mind from day one, knowing full well that a cut of its subsea cable could impact a wide-variety of business communications around the world.   In fact, Mr. Gutshall has presented on the choke points and communication arteries connecting Cable Landing Stations to the metropolitan areas, to the Federal Reserve and 40 key and top members of the financial community.

Cable breaks are not something new, cable systems have been cut before and will continue to be.  However, the key question here is if vandals are on the loose, and if this is a precursor to what could happen, are you sure your communications infrastructure is protected, diverse, secure, redundant and sustainable?  Hibernia Atlantic has been a leader in communicating these issues to both network operators and customers, reiterating the importance of knowing what network services you use and what features make it resilient.   Perhaps Hibernia Atlantic has it right, ‘Security through Diversity.”