Tuesday, January 24, 2006
BIG OOPS
BIG OOPS!
At half-past noon on Jan. 9, cable TV contractors sinking a half-mile of cable near Interstate 10 in rural Arizona pulled up something unexpected in the bucket of their backhoe: an unmarked fiber-optic cable. As the fiber came spooling out of the desert soil like a fishing line, long-distance service for millions of Sprint PCS and Nextel wireless customers west of the Rockies blinked off. Transcontinental internet traffic routed over Sprint slowed to a crawl, and some corporations that relied on the carrier to link office networks found themselves electronically isolated.
In Australia a similar thing occurred some 6 years ago on the Central Coast of NSW when a Backhoe doing work for the railways managed to snare a communications cable blacking out the entire north coast of New South Wales.
Experts say that these outages are indeed a reminder that with all the attention paid to computer viruses and the latest Windows security holes, the most vulnerable things are the worlds critical infrastructures lie literally beneath our feet.
Excavators may be held financially responsible by the asset owner should they damage underground networks.
When excavating, you can be held responsible for damage caused to underground networks. This means a cut may lead to a financial penalty. For this reason and for the reason of safety, it is imperative location plans are obtained, followed and all care is taken to ensure no damage is done.
Careless digging can :
The website is http://www.dialbeforeyoudig.com.au/
Source: wirednews.com and dialbeforeyoudig.com.au
At half-past noon on Jan. 9, cable TV contractors sinking a half-mile of cable near Interstate 10 in rural Arizona pulled up something unexpected in the bucket of their backhoe: an unmarked fiber-optic cable. As the fiber came spooling out of the desert soil like a fishing line, long-distance service for millions of Sprint PCS and Nextel wireless customers west of the Rockies blinked off. Transcontinental internet traffic routed over Sprint slowed to a crawl, and some corporations that relied on the carrier to link office networks found themselves electronically isolated.
In Australia a similar thing occurred some 6 years ago on the Central Coast of NSW when a Backhoe doing work for the railways managed to snare a communications cable blacking out the entire north coast of New South Wales.
Experts say that these outages are indeed a reminder that with all the attention paid to computer viruses and the latest Windows security holes, the most vulnerable things are the worlds critical infrastructures lie literally beneath our feet.
Excavators may be held financially responsible by the asset owner should they damage underground networks.
When excavating, you can be held responsible for damage caused to underground networks. This means a cut may lead to a financial penalty. For this reason and for the reason of safety, it is imperative location plans are obtained, followed and all care is taken to ensure no damage is done.
Careless digging can :
- cause death or serious injury to workers and the general public
- inconvenience users of electricity, gas, water and communications
- lead to criminal prosecution and damages claims
- cause expensive financial losses to business
- cut off emergency services
- delay project completion times while the damage is repaired
The website is http://www.dialbeforeyoudig.com.au/
Source: wirednews.com and dialbeforeyoudig.com.au
# posted by Peter Saville - IT Consultant @ 9:10 AM 
