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Crime The Internet

Vandals Cut 2,000 Fiber Optic Cables in Connecticut, Knocking 16,000 Offline (stamfordadvocate.com) 118

Posted by EditorDavid from the no-carrier dept.
"Connecticut police have charged two people with cutting more than 2,000 fiber optic cables" on March 24, reports the Associated Press — leaving more than 15,000 people without internet access. Norwalk police said they arrested Asheville, North Carolina, residents Jillian Persons and Austin Geddings on Saturday during a surveillance operation. Both were charged with larceny and criminal mischief crimes, as well as interfering with police. Persons also was accused of giving a false statement to police. Both were detained on $200,000 bail....The outages caused by the cable cutting have since been restored, according to Optimum's website.
The Stamford Advocate investigated how many people were affected: Norwalk Deputy Police Chief Terry Blake said Sunday more than 40,000 customers in the area were left without internet service as a result of the vandalism. However, an Optimum spokesperson claimed at the time the outages only affected roughly 16,000 customers and the inflated numbers were inaccurate because of an issue with the company's online outage map.
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Vandals Cut 2,000 Fiber Optic Cables in Connecticut, Knocking 16,000 Offline More

Vandals Cut 2,000 Fiber Optic Cables in Connecticut, Knocking 16,000 Offline

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  • Frequent occurrence with construction equipment (Score:5, Informative)

    by daten ( 575013 ) on Sunday April 02, 2023 @05:44PM (#63420414)
    Years ago I worked for a large cable company and the entire county lost service when a construction company putting in a driveway cut a fiber bundle near the local head end office. 2,000 fiber strands sounds like a lot of work but could be all in one bundle. Still a long day for the technician that has to fix it.

    • Re:Frequent occurrence with construction equipment (Score:5, Informative)

      by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Sunday April 02, 2023 @05:53PM (#63420438)

      Hitting cables because the line wasn't marked properly or you ddn't bother to check is one thing. Making a deliberate, conscious effort to cut the line is different. These two went out of their way to cause damage.

      • Making a deliberate, conscious effort to cut the line is different. These two went out of their way to cause damage.

        All the way from Asheville, North Carolina, to Connecticut.

        • Usually when you cut cables, it's to disrupt comms for a limited amount of time. Who or what is in Norwalk that it's so important for these two people to cut comms for a limited time?

        • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward
          Asheville is thought to have an ANTIFA regional HQ in the west Asheville area.

      • Re:Frequent occurrence with construction equipment (Score:5, Funny)

        by arglebargle_xiv ( 2212710 ) on Monday April 03, 2023 @01:45AM (#63421248)
        May I suggest a much better fits-the-crime punishment for these two than a fine: They get to stand at one end of a line of people who lost access to Tiktok videos, Fecebook, Pr0nhub, and Instagram because of them. If they make it to the other end of the line alive, they get to go free.
        • That may sound like an appropriate punishment, but alas, it's a clear violation of the Eight Amendment's [wikipedia.org] prohibition of Cruel and Unusual Punishment. Maybe just having them apologize in person to each person affected (not just the head of each household, each individual person) might be acceptable.
        • I'd say, the best punishment would be too pay for the repair and to split the man hours between them without any network that they caused others to be without network. 16000 times what, half a day makes for 8000 days, almost 22 years, so let's round that down to 10 years per person, to live without any kind of network. Talk to you in 2033!

    • Yep. Father-in-law did the splicing in the Air Force, and then as a civilian contractor. I'm not sure about the count for fiber optic, but the old copper data lines would typically be 100 pair or 200 pair of twin copper lines bringing in your internet accessibility.

      In that instance, the folks who thought they were stealing copper might only have to sever 10 lines to kill 2000 strands.

    • I always assumed fiber, like TV cable, would use one fiber to a street-level distribution box, where it'd be split into cables going into each house. Apparently that's not the case?

      • Re:Frequent occurrence with construction equipment (Score:4, Informative)

        by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Monday April 03, 2023 @07:07AM (#63421602)

        Typically it is a distribution room, up to 10km away for modern fiber. Cheaper that way. My fiber, for example, is about 2km long and it is in a rather dense urban area. (From a recent failure I know where the fiber terminator is. They gave me details including the rough address. Was a cooling failure in the distribution room and the fiber terminator saved itself by switching off.)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Still a long day for the technician that has to fix it.

      And a rather large price-tag for it. I have no experience splicing fibers, but from some observations of it being done in front of my flat, my guess is something like $25...$100 per fiber is probably realistic in cost. Means these morons have financially ruined themselves.

      • Means these morons have financially ruined themselves.

        Doing a Google search on Austin, it doesn't appear that he had any real prospect of financial success in his future anyway. He was charged with felonies for a burglary in January of 2022. A look at Jillian's mugshot screams tweaker.

  • copper (Score:5, Funny)

    by redback ( 15527 ) on Sunday April 02, 2023 @05:51PM (#63420430)

    Were they trying to steal copper?

    • Re:copper (Score:4, Insightful)

      by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Sunday April 02, 2023 @06:21PM (#63420512)

      Were they trying to steal copper?

      If so, they were going to be hugely disappointed as the copper content in "fiber optic" cables is pretty low. :-)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        If so, they were going to be hugely disappointed as the copper content in "fiber optic" cables is pretty low. :-)

        And the market price for scrap fiber is just as low.Just another advantage of going fiber, really. Higher bandwidth, cheaper, and has no scrap value. In fact, they usually print "FIBER OPTIC" on the cables to warn people they're just wasting time thinking of cutting it for scrap value.

        • If they print "FIBER OPTIC" to warn people, they should take their fucking low IQ into account and also write "THERE IS NO COPPER OR ANY OTHER PRECIOUS METALS IN THIS CABLE".

    • Almost certainly. The online pics of them screamed methhead.

    • They were trying to stop COVID! those 5G towers can be cut off at the source!

    • From another article with mugshots [wtnh.com] that does seem to be a more likely explanation than other alternatives. They both do have a tweaker look about them.

  • How many cables, not strands? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nkwe ( 604125 ) on Sunday April 02, 2023 @05:56PM (#63420444)
    Headline makes it sound like 2,000 different cables were cut (and that the bad guys did 2,000 bad things - potentially leading to 2,000 legal charges). Fiber optic strands are bundled together into "cables", so it's likely that only a few actual cables (containing a bunch of fiber) were actually cut. Still bad for folks to be cutting up infrastructure, but the crime could simply be cutting only a couple of physical things, and not a cutting rampage requiring lots of time and effort as is implied.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vadim_t ( 324782 )

      Still can be quite a lot.

      A 144 fiber cable is more or less the thickness of a garden hose. Those also have all sorts of internal layers and protection, so it's not something that you could cut all that easily. Cables made to be buried are sturdy. It'd take either heavy machinery, or a fair amount of determination to do it by hand.

      • True. I lost my fiber a month ago. A tree came down across a 72 fiber cable at the end of my driveway and there's still scraps of it laying on the ground. About the diameter of a dime and lots of layers of protection.

      • Re:How many cables, not strands? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Nkwe ( 604125 ) on Sunday April 02, 2023 @06:26PM (#63420522)
        This site [thefoa.org] suggests that there exist single cables a bit more than an inch in diameter that could hold that many strands. We don't know from the article, but it could have been anywhere from a single cut to 2,000 - although probably a lot closer to a single or a couple of cuts.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Tailhook ( 98486 )

        so it's not something that you could cut all that easily

        A battery powered cutoff wheel would zip though that in about 2 seconds.

    • My guess is that a trunk serving PONs was cut. A couple of years ago, AT&T were installing new underground interoffice fiber nearby. A foreman told me that the cable carried 240 fibers. A trunk line can serve several PON cabinets in a backbone/drops or ring configuration, and this can be further expanded by WDM. Each card in the cabinet chassis might serve 12 or 24 PONs (and there can be more than one chassis/card), and each PON can be passively split to up to 32 or 128 service drops (residence, bus

    • Because each fiber cut is a crime even if they're packaged in a bundle. The criminals effectively cut 2000 fiber lines even if it was one snip.
      Some of those individual fibers might have different owners.

  • It is stated that there is no motive so far. I cannot comprehend what would drive someone to do this.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      If it's vandalism...what do you expect? A logical explanation?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 )

      It is stated that there is no motive so far. I cannot comprehend what would drive someone to do this.

      It's Asheville, North Carolina. They probably think the cables were associated with 5G networks sending messages to vaccine-spread microchips, or were used by a Soros-led ring of child-slaver pedophiles.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by crow ( 16139 )

      They were also charged with larceny (i.e., theft). Perhaps they were trying to take the Ring doorbells offline. Not that that's any better than random vandals.

      • Maybe they where stealing the cables? Maybe thats the actual motive here. Multi-fibre cable can catch a hefty price, maybe they thought they could just cut into it and steal a few meters here and there.

        • They might have thought so, but nobody is going to buy a few meters of chopped up fiber cables. Perhaps they were just stupid and thought the cables were copper. Perhaps they were anti-tech idealogs and wanted to stop the tech overlords. Perhaps they think they are "allergic to the waves" and were on a mission to attack the evil allergens.

          It would be interesting to know their motives. But, like with most reporting, important stuff like that will likely never be released.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Nkwe ( 604125 )

      It is stated that there is no motive so far. I cannot comprehend what would drive someone to do this.

      Maybe looking for copper to sell?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by q4Fry ( 1322209 )

        Maybe looking for copper to sell?

        To get bus fare home to Carolina? Connecticut seems an awfully long way to go for some petty larceny.

    • "Some people just like to watch the world burn", but as others have said they might have also thought there was copper or something else valuable in the cable. There's also the possibility of something more cunning, like the desire to disrupt a rival business. If you're up and they're down, advantage goes to you but I'm not sure what kind of business would profit from that on a Sunday. For this reason, I'm quite sure that the high speed links to stock exchanges are closely guarded and surveilled; but may

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ravenshrike ( 808508 )

      Assuming it was only a few physical lines, they were probably meth addicts looking for copper to sell.

      *quickly looks up images of suspects*

      Yep, I virtually guarantee they were methheads looking for copper. An extremely common crime, the only uncommon thing about it being the specific lines they hit and the widespread outage.

      • He's got quite the diverse record going, too...

        Breaking & Entering, Larceny, Sched. drug possession, firearms charges - he's a winner!

    • Ah, same reason people were shooting at electric substations - to cause intentional disruptions. This then kickstarts the pending revolution. Theoretically. Such ideas aren't followed by people known for being deep thinkers. No, seriously, there are some people out there who honestly think a breakdown in services will cause an uprising while also believing that an uprising is a god thing.

    • I cannot comprehend what would drive someone to do this.

      I cannot comprehend how someone could be so clueless about what drives people.

    • They're Satanists, paid by the Russian mafia. This isn't just vandalism, it's treason. (The same people who paid them will most likely mod this post down, though occasionally they mod my posts up in an attempt to discredit me through irony.)

    • Depends, what's so important about Norwalk?

    • Beavis & Butthead would like to have a word with you. Actually two words...."Break It"!!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Extreme intellectual failure? Anyways, they will have to pay a _lot_ for that repair. Splicing fibers is expert work and not done in a minute.

  • apologize in person to each affected customer, one at a time ... alphabetically.

  • I initially read the headline as "Verizon Cuts 2,000 Fiber Optic Cables in Connecticut, Knocking 16,000 Offline".

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday April 02, 2023 @06:50PM (#63420570)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Most infrastructure is a house of cards. If someone wanted to blow hard enough they could knock it down. But that's why we call this civilization, because most people don't want to do that and the rest are mostly too stupid to succeed.

    • Re:If 2 nobodies can do that (Score:4, Insightful)

      by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Sunday April 02, 2023 @09:53PM (#63420930)

      >"Then it seems awfully irresponsible to keep the economy running on something so impossible to protect."

      And your alternative is what? Having armed guards every 300 feet along each cable run? Burying and encasing everything in reinforced concrete? Sheathing everything in carbon fiber nanotubes?

      There are real economic and physical limits in action. It is just like those who think we can "protect" all people from each other- it just isn't possible. Anyone can waltz into just about any populated place and explode a bomb, set things on fire, plow a truck through people, release a toxic chemical, etc. In many, many ways, society is fragile and depends on the mostly good behavior of the super-majority for it to work.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by vadim_t ( 324782 )

          Sneaker net, haha. A single fiber is capable of multiple 100 Gbps connections. And this is 2000 of them. You'd be talking about constantly shuffling wheelbarrows of NVMe drives back and forth.

      • Not sure if it's possible, but will it be possible to have high voltage power supply flow to various end users together in the same bundle?

        That will let Darwin handle the rest. Or are there thieves who hunt down high voltage power cables for the metal?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Morons shooting at high voltage isolators and transformers, just as an example. Basically the same problem. Usually people do not try to poison the water supply or burn down the store where they shop for groceries, but some do even that.

    • Railroads come to mind. That's why we will eventually need a panopticon because normal humans are idiot beasts unworthy of freedom they cannot intelligently use.

      I don't LIKE the idea but it will be a provoked defensive response. The average person is a savage moron only restrained by fear and sloth

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Then it seems awfully irresponsible to keep the economy running on something so impossible to protect.

      There was a spate of blackouts caused by thieves shooting up power substations - the thieves were pretty smart and shot up the relatively thin radiators so they leaked cooling oil and once the oil leaked out the transformer shut down as a protective measure.

      Considering power is a critical utility, a lot of it is relatively unprotected. I'm sure you've seen the tall pylons holding power lines - the taller th

    • I'm not sure people understand how important the honor system is to civilized society, and how much damage just one unhinged person can create.

      I'd give a few simple examples, but then people may come after me with pitchforks, accusing me of starting a riot and influencing copycats or something.

  • Casually curious if the initially reported 40K being incorrect because it was taken from a coverage map is related at all to the other stories about the FCC and broadband coverage. If the number was really 16K but the maps show 40K should have been affected, how would anyone viewing the coverage maps derive 16K?
  • 2,000 cable cuts seems like a lot of work, and the ratio of subscribers to cables being cut seems suspect. Did they cut, perhaps, approximately 7, 288 count fiber loose tubes? Vandalism not cool, but counting the number of strands in the cable vs number of cables plays a role in sensationalizing the headline.

  • i think the citizens that were affected by the cut should be provided an opportunity for some one-on-one time in the couple’s cell. you know, so the vandals can give apologies in person.

  • If you cut 2000 fibers and only 40,000 lost Internet, I'd say that was a pretty limited outage. Years ago I worked in telecom in an area. One morning a big yellow bucket uncovered (but didn't break) a fiber cable in a rural area. It wasn't ours. We called Qwest, it wasn't theirs. WTF - we didn't know any other providers in the area. Phone calls were made, questions were asked. AT&T engineers arrived with extreme interest. They were pretty cagey about it, but after making sure it was all a pretty

  • Someone think of the light! Save the light. Set it free! Is should not be confined to the jails of cables.

  • Were they wingnuts or using this as cover to commit another crime?

  • I'm guessing 5-10 teams working around the clock doing optical fiber splicing.

  • Those vandals just wanted to make a witty pun.

  • What's always missing and we may never know is why they did it. Tools to splice and repair fiber optic cable has been around for a few decades now and the various providers were able to restore service it seems quickly.

    Still, what's the motivation?

    • Good question. Why do addicts set fire to the (free) housing that our county provides for them?

    • What's the motivation for shooting up power substations? Charles Manson told his followers to murder people to trigger a race war... maybe these insane people have a similar insane plan.

  • It should carry the death penalty or at least life without parole to properly break the perps and set examples. Those who perpetrate it are trying to destroy society hence unworthy of life.

    The US is is a social disaste because nothing is punished that matters while victimless "crimes" are horrifically over-punished filling our jails and ruining lives. We crush people for minor crimes (cue the usual Anatole France quote) and let vermin walk.

  • Were the number of cut-off-people inflated by the outage map in the same proportion as the number of service-available-to-people show in the coverage map ?
  • Crossing multiple state lines to cut internet cables is...motherfucking odd, to say the least.

  • Ok, it's either Spectrum going for the last of their customers that had working internet, or any of the abused, downtrodden and flat out lintless customers that just couldn't stand it anymore so they wanted to see other people suffer.

    You think I joke, but Comcast has become the 'good' guy here for service and support . . . THINK about that. It's THAT bad.

  • Many years ago, I worked for the communications company responsible for the Alaska pipeline. They had and underground telephone cable at one of the camps that they wanted staked out so nobody would dig it up. They handed me a wire tracer and some stakes. Turns out, the cable was a lot closer to the ground than I thought, so I drove a stake right through the cable. Note to self: don't stake out the actual location of the cable, stake out 6 inches away from the cable. (Hey, I was 19 at the time.)

  • and I say, shoot the bastards!

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