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Versione delle 23:49, 22 dic 2008

Interruzione cavi sottomarini 2008 riguarda tre diversi maggiori disservizi di cavi ottici sottomarini. Il primo incidente ha causato danni coinvolgendo 5 cavi di telecomunicazione sottomarini nel Mar Mediterraneo e nel Medio Oriente tra il 23 Gennaio e il 4 Febbraio 2008, causando interruzione di traffico internet e rallentamenti per utenti nel Medio Oriente e in India.[1] L'incidente ha fatto dubitare l'opinione pubblica sulla sicurezza della porzione sottomarina del sistema cablaggio Internet.[2]

Alla fine del mese di Febbraio si è verificato un nuovo disservizio, che questa volta coinvolgeva una connessione in fibra ottica tra Singapore e Jakarta.[3]

Il 19 Dicembre, FLAG FEA, GO-1, SEA-ME-WE 3, and SEA-ME-WE 4 hanno riscontrato una nuova interruzione.[4][5][6]

Cavi danneggiati

23 Gennaio

Anche se non riportato tempestivamente, c'è stata un interruzione sul cavo FALCON il 23 Gennaio.[1] Il cavo FALCON collega numerosi stati tra il Golfo Persico e l'India.

30 Gennaio

Il 30 Gennaio, le agenzie stampa hanno riportato che i servizi Internet erano in larga porzione interrotti nel Medio Oriente e nel continente Indiano a seguito dell'interruzione dei cavi SEA-ME-WE 4 e FLAG Telecom nel Mar Mediterraneo.[7] Il guasto ai due cavi sottomarini è avvenuto separatamente a molti chilometri di distanza dalla stazione terrestre di Alexandria, in acque territoriali egiziane.[8]

Mentre le rispettive responsabilità dei due diversi cavi sottomarini non sono tutt'ora chiare, i grafici mostrano anomalie riscontrate alle 0430 UTC e quindi nuovamente alle 0800 UTC.[9] Le cause del danneggiamento a questi due cavi sottomarini non sono state dichiarate ufficialmente da nessuno dei proprietari.[10] Un vasto numero di fonti specularono sulla responsabilità del guasto da attribuire a una nave ancorata nei pressi di Alexandria. Il Ministero dei Trasporti Marittimi egiziano rianalizzando i video in suo possesso a cominciare da 12 ore prima fino 12 ore dopo l'accaduto ha concluso ufficializzando che la causa non è da imputare a nessuna imbarcazione perchè nessuna nave ha attraversato l'area interessata dal danneggiamento del cavo.[11][12][10] The Kuwaitis also do not directly charge seafaring vessels, instead referring to "weather conditions and maritime traffic."[13] The Economist ha riportato che la causa potrebbe essere stata un terremoto.

Effetti

Interruzione del 70 percento in Egitto e 60 percento in India, con problemi di un certo livello anche in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Maldive, Pakistan, Qatar, Arabia Saudita e Emirati Arabi Uniti.[12][14][15]

1 milione e 700 mila utenti Internet negli Emirati Arabi Uniti hanno riscontrato la completa interruzione del traffico. Mahesh Jaishanker, direttore esecutivo di Du, ha detto, “L'interruzione del cavo sottomarino Europa-Asia FLAG a 8.3 km da Alexandria, Egitto e del SEA-ME-WE 4 hanno coinvolto almeno 60 milioni di utenti in India, 12 milioni in Pakistan, 6 milioni in Egitto e 4,7 milioni in Arabia Saudita.”[7] Un router dell'università di Teheran non rispondeva, causando perdita di connettività per l'Iran.[16][17] Comunque, l'ambasciata Iraniana in Abu Dhabi riportava "tutto ok."[18][19] Additional reports and analysis showed that while Iran was affected, it "fared much better" than many other countries in the same geographic area.[20][21]

On 1 February 2008, VSNL, a leading communications solutions provider in India, confirmed that the company restored a majority of its IP connectivity into the MENA region within 24 hours of the Egypt cable breakdown. Services were largely restored within 24 hours of the cable cut by diverting traffic through the TIC and SEA-ME-WE 3 cables.[22]

1 February

Two days after the initial break, it was reported that the FALCON cable was cut between Muscat, Oman and Dubai, UAE.[1] This cut was between different landing points than the 23 January cut, FLAG Telecom issued a press release later, stating the "FALCON cable is reported cut at 0559 hrs GMT on 1 February 2008. Location of cut is at 56 km from Dubai, UAE on segment between UAE and Oman".[23] This cut was caused by an abandoned anchor weighing 5-6 tonnes.[24][25]

3 February

On 3 February 2008, Qtel reported that a cable called DOHA-HALOUL connecting Qatar to the United Arab Emirates had been damaged, causing disruptions in already damaged Middle Eastern communication networks. It became the fourth cable to be damaged in 5 days.[26] The location of the break is between the Qatari island of Haloul and the UAE island of Das.[27] The problem is said to be related to the power system.[28]

4 February

On 4 February 2008 the Khaleej Times reported that SEA-ME-WE 4 had also been damaged at another location, near Penang, Malaysia. The date of this damage was not given.[7]

 

19 December

On 19 December 2008 France Telecom issued a press release stating that the FLAG Telecom, SEA-ME-WE 4, and SEA-ME-WE 3 cables, linking Alexandria, Egypt, Sicily, Italy, and Malta, had been cut by either bad weather conditions or a ship's anchor, resulting in substantial slowdowns in communication traffic, with Egypt experiencing an overall 80% reduction in Internet capacity.[29] France Telecom expects SEA-ME-WE 4 will be repaired first, then SEA-ME-WE 3, then FLAG, and that repairs should be concluded by 31 December. The break disrupted 75% of communication between the Middle East and Asia and the rest of the world. The breaks caused companies including Vodafone, Verizon Communications, Portugal Telecom, GO and France Telecom to experience disruption in their systems and forced them to reroute communications through different means. Others, such as AT&T, also received reports of service disruption.[29] The rerouting of these communications caused large slowdowns in some areas. Interoute director Jonathan Wright stated that "You can reroute the data through other cables, but that increases traffic and can potentially create bottlenecks, so Internet connections may slow down and some phone calls could get disrupted."[30] The GO-1 cable connecting Malta and Sicily was also cut.[31][32]

Cause of cable breaks

Anchors

These disruptions are attributed by some officials to accidents involving ships' anchors,[12][10] but reviews of surveillance footage of the area by Egyptian authorities revealed no ships in the area.[33] However, Flag telecom indicated that the cut to the Falcon cable between the United Arab Emirates and Oman was caused by an abandoned anchor weighing five to six tons.[34]

In mid April two ships were impounded in connection with the FLAG Telecom outages near Dubai. They were charged with improperly dropping anchor in the area of the cuts.[35]

The 19 December breaks were reported to be caused either by bad weather or a ship's anchor, though the bad weather was just a possibility and the anchor a much more likely occurrence.[29]

Common occurrence

According to Stephen Beckert, a senior analyst at TeleGeography, the events are far less exceptional than they seem because cable cuts happen all the time. Beckert argues that "only the first two cuts had any serious impact on the internet," and this drew public attention to other cable cuts that would not normally have been newsworthy. According to Beckert, cable cuts happen "on average once every three days." He further noted that there are 25 large ships that do nothing but fix cable cuts and bends, and that such cuts are usually the result of cables rubbing against rocks on the sea floor.[36]

According to Global Marine Systems, "Undersea cable damage is hardly rare—indeed, more than 50 repair operations were mounted in the Atlantic alone last year". While a cut in a cable crossing the Atlantic has "no significant effect" due to the many alternate cables, only a handful of Internet cables serve the Middle East. These disruptions are only noticeable because of the small number of cables.[37]

Conspiracy theories

Some have suggested something more sinister is afoot. Israel and Iraq were not affected,[38] sparking conspiracy theories that spread throughout the Internet.[39][40][41][42][43]

On 6 February, theories that the disruption in these cables was related to an economic confrontation between the United States and Iran appeared in an opinion piece on Dow Jones Marketwatch.[44] This article points out that the disruption or damage to these cables preceded the intended launch of the Iranian oil bourse on Kish Island between 1 and 11 February. The launch of this bourse, which was intended to broker sales of oil denominated in euros (sometimes called "petroeuros") had been interpreted by some as an attempt by Iran to inflict additional damage to the value of the dollar by reducing the volume of oil which is traded in "petrodollars".[45] Given the potential economic damage of euro-denominated oil sales in the context of on-going dollar deflation, as well as the large number of cables which appear to have been disrupted or damaged, Marketwatch's John Dvorak has written that the U.S. can expect to be blamed for the disruptions.[46]

According to this sabotage theory, the damaged cables and the resulting Internet disruptions would destroy confidence in the ability of the Iranian Oil Bourse to execute trades, thereby thwarting the establishment of an alternative to dollar-denominated oil sales. In fact, Iran suffered very little from the outages, which primarily affected America's allies in the region (see 'Effects' above).[47][48]

On Monday, 18 February, the International Telecommunication Union said that the damage could have been an act of sabotage. The UN agency's head of development, Sami al-Murshed was quoted, "We do not want to preempt the results of ongoing investigations, but we do not rule out that a deliberate act of sabotage caused the damage to the undersea cables over two weeks ago."[49]

Further reading

  • Map by The Guardian of the submarine cables in the world, highlighting the first two cables cut

References

  1. ^ a b c Cable damage hits one million Internet Users (XML), in Khaleej News, 4 febbraio 2008. URL consultato il 4 febbraio 2008.
  2. ^ Ruptures call safety of Internet cables into question, in International Herald Tribune, 5 febbraio 2008.
  3. ^ Internet capacity down to 10%, in The Jakarta Post, 29 febbraio 2008.
  4. ^ http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=ayPbWf_7l17w
  5. ^ http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081219/local/go-submarine-cable-fault-part-of-wider-number-between-italy-and-egypt
  6. ^ http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=650982
  7. ^ a b c Errore nelle note: Errore nell'uso del marcatore <ref>: non è stato indicato alcun testo per il marcatore Khaleej Times
  8. ^ Repairs begin on Middle East Web cable, in The Associated Press, 5 febbraio 2008. URL consultato il 18 febbraio 2008.
  9. ^ Earl Zmijewski, Mediterranean Cable Break, in Renesys Blog, Renesys, 30 gennaio 2008. URL consultato il 31 gennaio 2008.
  10. ^ a b c Ships did not cause Internet cable damage, in Khaleej Times Online, 3 febbraio 2008. URL consultato il 3 febbraio 2008. Errore nelle note: Tag <ref> non valido; il nome "TOI" è stato definito più volte con contenuti diversi
  11. ^ Ships did not cut internet cables: Egypt, in ABC News, 4 febbraio 2008.
  12. ^ a b c Severed cables disrupt Internet, in BBC News, 31 gennaio 2008. URL consultato il 31 gennaio 2008.
  13. ^ Agence France Press, Indian outsourcing sector hit by Internet disruption, Google News, 31 gennaio 2008. URL consultato il 31 gennaio 2008.
  14. ^ Associated Press, Cable Break Causes Wide Internet Outage, in The New York Times, 1º febbraio 2008. URL consultato il 1º febbraio 2008.
  15. ^ Minivannews.com, Broken Submarine Cable Affects Raajje Online And Wataniya, in Minivannews.com, 4 febbraio 2008. URL consultato il 4 febbraio 2008.
  16. ^ Third Internet Cable cut — Tehran 100% Outage, su liveleak.com, 2 febbraio 2008.
  17. ^ Details for Asia /// Internet Traffic Report, su internettrafficreport.com. URL consultato l'8 febbraio 2008.
  18. ^ Dylan Bowman.Flag plays down net blackout conspiracy theories, ArabianBusiness.com, 4 February 2008.
  19. ^ Who cuts undersea cables in the Middle East?, su albawaba.com.
  20. ^ ATTENTION: Iran is not disconnected!, su renesys.com.
  21. ^ Effects of Fibre Outage through Mediterranean, su confluence.slac.stanford.edu.
  22. ^ VNSL restores services after cable break, 1º febbraio 2008.
  23. ^ Flag Telecom cut cable update 1, su flagtelecom.com, 6 febbraio 2008.
  24. ^ Flag Telecom cut cable update 2, su flagtelecom.com, 7 febbraio 2008.
  25. ^ Anchor found at cable cut site, in CNET Networks, 6 febbraio 2008.
  26. ^ Ships did not cause Internet cable damage, in Khaleej Times, 3 febbraio 2008.
  27. ^ Internet problems continue with fourth cable break, 3 febbraio 2008.
  28. ^ 4th Undersea Cable Break: Between Qatar and UAE, 4 febbraio 2008.
  29. ^ a b c James Regan, Undersea cable breaks cut Internet in Mideast, Asia, Reuters, 19 dicembre 2008. URL consultato il 21 dicembre 2008.
  30. ^ Severed Cables in Mediterranean Disrupt Communication, Bloomberg, 19 dicembre 2008. URL consultato il 21 dicembre 2008.
  31. ^ GO submarine cable fault part of wider disruption between Italy and Egypt, Times of Malta, 19 dicembre 2008. URL consultato il 21 dicembre 2008.
  32. ^ Mediterrean submarine cables are cut, affecting internet, Telecompaper, 19 dicembre 2008.
  33. ^ Ships did not cause Internet cable damage, in Khaleej Times, 3 febbraio 2008. URL consultato il 6 febbraio 2008.
  34. ^ Breaking News / Infotech, 7 febbraio 2008.
  35. ^ Rich Miller, Ships Impounded in Middle East Cable Cuts, 13 aprile 2008. URL consultato il 14 aprile 2008.
  36. ^ Cable Cut Fever Grips the Web, in Wired News, 6 febbraio 2008.
  37. ^ Analyzing the Internet Collapse, in ABC News, 5 febbraio 2008.
  38. ^ One Internet cut explained, but four others still a mystery, su mathaba.net, 7 febbraio 2008.
  39. ^ Agence France Press, One Internet cut explained, but four others still a mystery, 8 febbraio 2008.
  40. ^ Three Internet Cables Slashed in a Week: Has Iran lost all Internet Connectivity?, in Global Research, 3 febbraio 2008.
  41. ^ "Fourth undersea cable cut near UAE, suspicions rise", in Engadget, 5 febbraio 2008. URL consultato il 7 febbraio 2008.
  42. ^ "The newest Internet whodunnit? Who cut the cables?", in CNET.com, 5 febbraio 2008. URL consultato il 7 febbraio 2008.
  43. ^ Who cuts undersea cables in the Middle East?, in Al Bawaba, 5 febbraio 2008. URL consultato il 6 febbraio 2008.
  44. ^ Middle East Internet interruption looks fishy, su marketwatch.com, 8 febbraio 2008.
  45. ^ Petrodollar Warfare: Dollars, Euros and the Upcoming Iranian Oil Bourse, su energybulletin.net, 2 agosto 2005.
  46. ^ Middle East Internet interruption looks fishy, su marketwatch.com, 8 febbraio 2008.
  47. ^ ATTENTION: Iran is not disconnected!, su renesys.com.
  48. ^ Effects of Fibre Outage through Mediterranean, su confluence.slac.stanford.edu.
  49. ^ Saboteurs may have cut Mideast telecom cables: UN agency, in AFP, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 febbraio 2008.
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