When Your Backhoe Cuts "Black" Fiber 385
bernieS writes "The Washington Post describes what happens when a construction backhoe accidentally cuts buried fiber so secret that it doesn't appear on public maps — and what happens when the Men in Black SUVs appear out of nowhere. Apparently, the numerous secret fiber and utility lines used by government intelligence agencies are being dug up with increasing frequency with all the increased construction projects in the DC area. It's amazing how quickly they get repaired!"
Re:Ok... (Score:2, Informative)
Many states have a requirement to call a locater service X days before you dig. You call one number and all the utilities come out and mark their stuff. Then, when you dig if you cut something that wasn't marked, it isn't your problem. Cut something marked and you pay.
I can only guess why super-duper secret fiber wasn't buried a little deeper than usual to avoid this kind of thing.
Re:My Dad (Score:5, Informative)
A back haul line that runs from the tower to a CLEC. You didn't think they operated on a mesh configuration, did you? They are essentially big access points.
T-1s used to be common, as are bonded T-1s for rural areas. DS-3s and OC-3 fiber beyond that.
Re:Ok... (Score:3, Informative)
That's the point. Read his post a bit more carefully.
They call the "white" utilities, who come and mark their shit. You've covered your ass. If any of the "black" utilities' stuff gets damaged, it's not your problem.
Re:Our tax dollars at work. (Score:5, Informative)
This is the first things I thought of - mark it as something else.
"Fibre cable x21-45. Carries: CCT footage of parking lots A-F in Sector 7."
Make two physically separate redundant feeds. The other one is marked with something like "Library Interconnect".
Then if either line gets cut at some point, have a couple of guys in a van show up, act like a regular repair crew, and fix the line quickly. Trust me, I've worked as a Civil Engineering Assistant, and they don't care what's in the line, just that there's a line. If you hit something that isn't on the map, they are going to find it and trace it no matter how long it takes. It'll be in a pipe. You can run a 60Hz powerline into the pipe and read the path from the surface. Maybe it's fibre this time -- maybe it's the water main or black water, or WCS -- both at the same time. The point is if you don't file your plans the town will send a poor fucking co-op student out there to mark the fucking thing on the map.
Then - bam - your secret line is on the maps in the Town Hall marked as "unknown line".
Re:Under pressure... (Score:5, Informative)
I hate to say it, but no, not really. My podunk base in podunk, minnesota applies the same security and cryptography. For example one of our systems that contains NO secret information, NO C&C abilities, and NO administrative rights requires an *18 character* password that must be changed monthly. One each: letter, upper case letter, number, special character, no words, nothing similar to your last 6 passwords etc. And this is behind our secure two-factor login system and on a secure network. And yet, when the base upgraded to fiber, it was done by 3 guys working out of a rented U-Haul truck. Watched it with my own eyes.
This is just the gov't doing what it does best.
-b
Re:Ok... (Score:5, Informative)
I'm going to guess that they don't come at you for damages, as that would only make their little "secret" more public.
If you bothered to read the article, you would see they tried to bill one contractor for $300,000.
and on an unrelated side note, ianal.
Well, I AM anal. I read the article before posting.
Re:Our tax dollars at work. (Score:4, Informative)
To be completely fair, Vader did not blow up Alderaan, Tarkin was responsible for that little example of state terrorism...
Vader did not voice any objection to the plan, though
Re:Our tax dollars at work. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Our tax dollars at work. (Score:5, Informative)
Many cities in the USA have the same thing, a single number you can call, but it usually results in someone coming out to the land with a flag planter. They use different colors for various services - blue for water, yellow for gas, red for electric, and white for other things such as phone, cable tv, and fiber, so even if they came out and marked their secret line with the rest, you'd have no way of distinguishing it from say a buried telephone trunk without actually digging it up.
Re:My Dad (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Our tax dollars at work. (Score:3, Informative)
Most likely you/the contractor couldn't sue the government for anything in this case. This is Washington DC and congress has the final say in everything that goes on in Washington. If Congress ok'd the lines in the first place, then congress would have to grant the ability to suit over them in order to allow you to sue. This is part of the sovereign immunity that all US governments enjoy.
More then likely, the lines were placed in back during the cold war and possibly upgraded since then. Intercepting communications during the cold war by taping fiber lines or even copper lines was a real and seen threat. We did it to them and they did it to us. Ego and Laziness really has nothing to do with it. Especially when congress has ultimate control over DC. Many people forget that Washing DC is a territory/district, not a state and the constitution specifically give congress control of it.
As for being secrete, they still can be secrete. There are probably alternate paths that the fiber channels cover and the only real difference is that now someone would have either keep a signal live on these lines to detect any interruption or drive the path several times a day to check for any digging or anything around them. IF nothing is detected, they would still be good for backup routes if ever needed, if something is ever detected, then replacing them through another location and just making the existing lines public would work just as well.
Re:Our tax dollars at work. (Score:5, Informative)
This is part of the sovereign immunity that all US governments enjoy.
How many US governments are there?
51 (Fifty States, plus the federal.)
Re:Our tax dollars at work. (Score:3, Informative)
In effect, you are somewhat right. those pipes are hermetically sealed and under pressure, and have the fiber cable inside.
when a break occurs, they can detect it by the loss of pressure
Re:Our tax dollars at work. (Score:5, Informative)
Many gas pipeline companies bury communications links right alongside their pipelines that communicate with flow meters and pressure gauges, send instructions to compressor stations along the pipeline to throttle up or down, or shut and open valves remotely to keep up with demand. They wouldn't run the cable inside the pipelines, though, because they occasionally send devices called "pigs" through the pipes to check for corrosion on the inside of the pipeline. The pigs would simply shred any cables inside the pipeline.
Now it's conceivable that a secret agency could slip in their communications link alongside the pipeline company's link as it's being built; of course they would lie and tell the pipeline constructors that they're such-and-such communications company looking for a protected right-of-way for their cable. Then when someone dials the call-before-you-dig hotline, they're told there's two communications links and a 36 inch gas pipeline buried there. Guaranteed the contractor will be more concerned about hitting the pipeline than any cables buried right next to it, and stay far away from it.
Re:Our tax dollars at work. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Our tax dollars at work. (Score:3, Informative)
Absolutely been done, though compressed air is far more likely than natural gas. Divide the pipe into compartments, pressurize each compartment, and install a pressure transducer in each segment. If one of the segments gets breached it loses pressure and you can tell exactly where the damage happened.
I think this stuff is outlined in the old TEMPEST specs. It's not just about EM leakage, but damage detection and mitigation and airgapping of different levels of classification. I bet there's plenty of triple runs of pipe going into buildings in northern Virginia: SIPRNet, NIPRNet and JWICS ought to be in separate conduits.