How secure and stable is the internet? Not much, evidently, if this report on FP is anything to go by.
"In a story that will not exactly fill you with confidence about the robustness of the world's communications networks, an elderly Georgian woman (not the one pictured above... as far as I know) scavenging for scrap metal accidentally knocked out Internet service for a country of 3.2 million people last week:
The woman, 75, had been digging for the metal not far from the capital Tbilisi when her spade damaged the fibre-optic cable on 28 March.
As Georgia provides 90% of Armenia's internet, the woman's unwitting sabotage had catastrophic consequences. Web users in the nation of 3.2 million people were left twiddling their thumbs for up to five hours as the country's main internet providers - ArmenTel, FiberNet Communication and GNC-Alfa – were prevented from supplying their normal service. Television pictures showed reporters at a news agency in the capital Yerevan staring glumly at blank screens.
Large parts of Georgia and some areas of Azerbaijan were also affected.
"It was a 75-year-old woman who was digging for copper in the ground so that she could sell it for scrap," said a spokesman for Georgia's interior ministry said yesterday.
Dubbed "the spade-hacker" by local media, the woman – who has not been named – is being investigated on suspicion of damaging property. She faces up to three years in prison if charged and convicted.
Given its own experience with cyberattacks, Georgia ought to be worried that the fragility of the region's networks has now been revealed. Who needs elite hackers and DDOS attacks? With its inexhaustible supply of spade-wielding babushkas, the Kremlin could bring Tbilisi to its knees!"
"In a story that will not exactly fill you with confidence about the robustness of the world's communications networks, an elderly Georgian woman (not the one pictured above... as far as I know) scavenging for scrap metal accidentally knocked out Internet service for a country of 3.2 million people last week:
The woman, 75, had been digging for the metal not far from the capital Tbilisi when her spade damaged the fibre-optic cable on 28 March.
As Georgia provides 90% of Armenia's internet, the woman's unwitting sabotage had catastrophic consequences. Web users in the nation of 3.2 million people were left twiddling their thumbs for up to five hours as the country's main internet providers - ArmenTel, FiberNet Communication and GNC-Alfa – were prevented from supplying their normal service. Television pictures showed reporters at a news agency in the capital Yerevan staring glumly at blank screens.
Large parts of Georgia and some areas of Azerbaijan were also affected.
"It was a 75-year-old woman who was digging for copper in the ground so that she could sell it for scrap," said a spokesman for Georgia's interior ministry said yesterday.
Dubbed "the spade-hacker" by local media, the woman – who has not been named – is being investigated on suspicion of damaging property. She faces up to three years in prison if charged and convicted.
Given its own experience with cyberattacks, Georgia ought to be worried that the fragility of the region's networks has now been revealed. Who needs elite hackers and DDOS attacks? With its inexhaustible supply of spade-wielding babushkas, the Kremlin could bring Tbilisi to its knees!"
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