FBI investigating vandalism of fiberoptic cables at Livermore

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/FBI-investigating-vandalism-of-fiber-optic-cables-6360469.php

by anigbrowl • 11 years ago

59 66 11 years ago

jlgaddis3• 11 years ago

I wonder how long it will be until the authorities start getting cell site records showing everyone who was near each of these locations and then analyzing them to find people who just happened to be in/around several of these locations when each of the cuts occurred.

x5n1• 11 years ago

This has probably already been done. Criminals these days know not to carry cell phones.

Scoundreller2• 11 years ago

Do they? In Toronto, we just had an alleged hitman do the deed with a disguise and stolen getaway vehicle use the same vehicle to scope out the scene the day before in broad daylight without a disguise...

dmfdmf• 11 years ago

Or who's cell phone shut off 1 or 2 cells over then turned back on 1 or 2 cells over in the time frame of the crime. This is the kind of FBI sleuthing I'd support, assuming they got a warrant.

arebop• 11 years ago

A warrant to query everyone's geotagged cell phone records? That's a long way from traditional warrants to obtain a suspect's call log or to tap a suspect's phone...

ubersync• 11 years ago

Until they make THAT (switching off your phone for 1 or 2 cells and turning back on 1 or 2 cells over) a crime. And start compelling cellphone companies to provide them with the records of everyone who does that. And start targeting those people. Like structuring [0].

[0] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/us/law-lets-irs-seize-acco...

deciplex• 11 years ago

Why would you shut off your phone? Just leave it behind.

task_queue3• 11 years ago

I'd love to be the lucky person who fits the profile of being in the right place at the wrong time.

kiallmacinnes• 11 years ago

My immediate thoughts were that these incidents were committed by anti-technology folks, looking to disrupt the tech focused population. In my mind, these folks don't even own cell phones.

declan• 11 years ago

I believe it was my 2010 article that was the first to highlight law enforcement obtaining cell site dumps:

http://www.cnet.com/news/feds-push-for-tracking-cell-phones/ "When the FBI was stymied by a band of armed robbers known as the "Scarecrow Bandits" that had robbed more than 20 Texas banks, it came up with a novel method of locating the thieves. FBI agents obtained logs from mobile phone companies corresponding to what their cellular towers had recorded at the time of a dozen different bank robberies in the Dallas area. The voluminous records showed that two phones had made calls around the time of all 12 heists..."

I'd be surprised if the FBI didn't do the same thing today, as a very bare minimum.

jlgaddis3• 11 years ago

It very well may have been. I can remember reading that article.

dangly_bits• 11 years ago

It wasn't by a long shot. This very practice was a major plot point of season two of The Wire, which was aired in 2003.

throwaway7767• 11 years ago

No, even in my very small country with generally pretty tech-impaired police department, this was common before 2010. There was a big issue I think around 2006 because the police requested the list of IMEIs present near a particular rural transmitter to help investigate a murder, their court order was rejected as the transmitter was serving a huge area and it was deemed too large a privacy violation for too many people.

I'm sure it was done many times before that, and I'm also sure we were not the first.

rullgrus• 11 years ago

Logs which showed which towers a specific cellphone was connected to was important evidence in the 1999 murder case covered by the SERIAL podcast.

TeMPOraL2• 11 years ago

If this was a professional "hit", then it would be incredibly dumb to even carry a cellphone with you on such op. If you need real-time communication, just get VHF/UHF radio; Baofengs are pretty cheap these days.

badkungfu• 11 years ago

Even better than cell records would be this: http://www.radiolab.org/story/eye-sky/

And I think I'd actually be ok with this method if our military/police/political leaders had a better track record of respecting rules for using the data.

hellbanner2• 11 years ago

Is this vandalism or a terrorist attack? Interfering with communication structures..

unabridged• 11 years ago

They say 11th case in the last year, this is terrorism. Probably some kind of luddite version of the ALF/ELF. I'm going to call them the Information Liberation Front, ILF.

bashinator• 11 years ago

I really don't like the overloading of the term "terrorism" here. Nobody was killed, injured, attacked, or threatened.

higherpurpose• 11 years ago

Interfering with communication structures..

So? That terrifies you?

kevinkimball• 11 years ago

a little bit, yeah

jdietrich• 11 years ago

Probably just failed cable theft. Petty criminals who steal metals for scrap aren't particularly bright.

http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/workspace/thousands-sky-cust...

rhizome• 11 years ago

How much scrap metal is there in a fiber optic cable?

fiatmoney• 11 years ago

If you're wondering whether this is related to the sniper attacks on electrical transformers in 2013, don't worry - despite having apparently no idea who did either, the FBI is pretty sure there's no connection.

"On April 16, 2013, suspects clipped fiber-optic cables outside San Jose before snipers opened fire on electrical transformers at PG&E's Metcalf Transmission Substation, causing more than $15 million in damage.

According to the FBI, the recent spate of fiber cuts are unconnected to the sniper attack on the Metcalf substation. No one has been arrested in connection with that attack."

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sacramento-cable...

Alupis4• 11 years ago

One has to question how they can be so certain they are totally unrelated given they have no clues about either incidents. Seems more like wishful thinking than sound facts at this point.

skolor2• 11 years ago

No public information about a crime doesn't mean no clues.

codezero5• 11 years ago

I acknowledge my own paranoia, but is there any chance this wasn't vandalism, but is a cover story for the NSA installing equipment on the fiber?

Alupis4• 11 years ago

Or, going down the rabbit hole, the government sabotaging fiber lines to stir up public support for "protecting" the internet, more surveillance, etc.

The quote keeps getting kicked around on most media outlets: "Our internet infrastructure stands practically unprotected".

codezero5• 11 years ago

It sounds crazy, but at this point, why not.

ethanbond• 11 years ago

I've never heard anyone use that in terms of physical infrastructure. I've heard our other physical infrastructure is unprotected (which is true) and our internet isn't protected against cyberattacks (which I guess is vaguely true?)

skolor2• 11 years ago

Why wouldn't they just drop their equipment and leave? Cutting cables causes a noticeable outage and requires people to physically visit the point of modification, which ruins the covert potential for such equipment.

codezero5• 11 years ago

Possibly there's no way to install the equipment in a way that won't interrupt service.

Also, such an approach would give the fiber company plausible deniability if they were ever called out for supporting NSA data collection.

2close4comfort• 11 years ago

unless you your install is downstream of the cut and action of the cable cutting is both to interrupt service and to cause a distraction...

TeMPOraL2• 11 years ago

I vote for this being fully private operation - someone trying to sabotage their competition, or some HFT shenanigans.

codezero5• 11 years ago

Something really interesting I noticed, according to: http://www.scribd.com/doc/270207251/Severed-Fiber-Optic-Cabl...

There were cuts in Alamo @ 11pm, and then in Fremont at 11:40pm.

It takes almost exactly that long to drive between these locations.

Either there are multiple parties at work here, or these cuts are planned very well and executed flawlessly.

Indeed, this dual-pronged approach seems to happen three times total.

On 7/6 Berkeley to Fremont, 7/7 Walnut Creek to Fremont then San Jose (though I think it would be hard to get from WC to Fremont in 25 minutes... basically impossible), and 6/8 Alamo to Fremont.

Actually, it seems almost certain that multiple people are either doing this independently or working together.

Since the disparate cuts happen on the same day, it seems very much like multiple people are working together.

chinathrow• 11 years ago

It would be interesting to learn what high profile clients are getting their connectivity and how it affects their business either by a) severed or no connectivity or b) that a splitter device is running somewhere near the cut and doing MITM.

FBI investigating vandalism of fiberoptic cables at Livermore

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