The Federal Bureau of Investigation said that it is looking for the suspects in a new attack on fiber optic cables located in the Bay Area of California, which caused Internet service disruptions as far north as the city of Seattle.
The attack is the latest in a series of disruptions against fiber optic cables. The incidents have largely frustrated companies such as Zayo Group Holdings and Level 3 Communications, which are Internet wholesalers. These companies own the backbones of networks that both telephone and cable companies utilize to connect to the Internet.
In the middle of last month, the FBI sought for assistance from the public in reporting any suspicious activities near the sites where previous acts of destruction on fiber optic cables occurred.
The latest attack affected several fiber optic cables in Livermore, California, at around 4:30 a.m. Pacific time on June 30. Repairs for the cables have not yet been done as of early evening of the same day, as reported by several providers of Internet services that were affected by the destroyed fiber optic cables. Some of the operators have even complained that activities by law enforcers actually made it more difficult for technical teams to address the situation.
"It's very inconvenient in terms of getting up at 4 in the morning," said local Internet service provider Unwired CEO Peter Kranz.
Greg Wuthrich, a special agent for the FBI, said that the agency understood the frustrations of the operators. However, the investigation would first require for a search on evidence on the people behind the attack before the damage on the fiber optic cables can be repaired.
Wuthrich said that in previous attacks, the cuts on the fiber optic cables were fixed right away, leaving the agency with no chance to search for evidence as there was nothing left to look at.
"We just need to have a little bit more time to have our people go in," he added.
Microsoft reported that it experienced a slowdown in Azure, its cloud computing service, for the western area of the United States, with the reason for such a slowdown being damaged fiber optic cables.
Hurricane Electric CEO Mike Leber said that the damages on the fiber optic cables slowed down the service for some of the Internet service provider's business customers located as far away as Seattle.
Wave Broadband spokesman Mark Peterson revealed that the damages caused outages on its TV and phone signals for many of its customers in the Sacramento area. However, the company was able to rectify the problem by rerouting some traffic around certain gaps.
"It's a terrible social crime that affects thousands and millions of people," said The Envisioneering Group research director Richard Doherty regarding the attacks on fiber optic cables.
Photo: Rosham Nikam | Flickr
