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Ivybridge_I7
Cyber-Crime Researcher OpSec
Premium Member
join:2004-06-09
Daytona Beach, FL

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Ivybridge_I7

Premium Member

Asia-Pacific Cable Network 2 has serious cable fault

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APCN2 cable route
Update: Asian undersea cable disruption slows Internet access
By Sumner Lemon
August 12, 2009 04:41 AM ET
»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AP ··· ystem%29
»www.computerworld.com/s/ ··· Number=3
IDG News Service - A segment of the Asia-Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2) undersea cable network between China and Taiwan suffered a serious cable fault on Wednesday, causing Internet traffic to be rerouted onto other undersea cables and slowing Internet access for some users in Southeast Asia.

At about 10:50 a.m. on Wednesday, local time, an alarm signaled a cable fault on Segment 7 of APCN2, which connects Hong Kong and Shantou, China. The disruption caused a temporary loss of service on the undersea link but all customers that use the cable were soon shifted to capacity on other cables, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The APCN2 cable is owned by a consortium of 26 telecom operators from 14 different countries. The cable links Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, South Korea and Japan.

The exact cause of the APCN2 fault was not immediately known. The alarm indicated the disruption was caused by a "single point of failure," which suggests a variety of possibilities, including a technical failure or a cable cut, the source said.

The incident was likely the main reason that Internet access appeared slower for some users in Singapore on Wednesday, the source said.

Undersea cables are used to transport much of the world's Internet traffic and can be easily damaged by natural disasters or other causes. In 2006, a powerful earthquake off the southern coast of Taiwan damaged several cables and slowed Internet access to a crawl for users in Southeast Asia.
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), which is an investor in APCN2, said its users may experience slower Internet access than normal to some U.S. Web sites, blaming the APCN2 fault on damage caused by Typhoon Morakot.

"The [APCN2] consortium members have started restoration works, and our engineers are in the process of diverting Internet traffic to other cable systems. We expect the situation to return to acceptable levels within the next 24 hours," SingTel spokesman Chia Boon Chong, said in an e-mail statement.

A spokesman for Starhub, another Singapore ISP that holds a stake in the cable, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

The fault that hit APCN2 on Wednesday follows two other service disruptions that recently hit the network. One disruption affected APCN2 Segment 7, between Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the other affected APCN2 Segment 1, which connects Singapore and Malaysia. However, both of these disruptions were deemed to be "relatively minor" compared to the disruption that took place Wednesday morning, the source said.

The cause of the two earlier faults on APCN2 was not immediately clear.

APCN2 isn't the only Asian undersea cable currently suffering from a service disruption

"The Cable & Wireless Real Time Operations Team have logged multiple cable breaks on APCN2, APCN, EAC and SMW3 in Asia Pacific -- specifically, near Taiwan. Network traffic flow has been adversely affected in and out of the region as a result," said Gavin Tait, director of Asia network planning and implementation at Cable & Wireless, in an e-mail statement provided by the company.

None of Cable & Wireless customers were affected by these failures, he said.

Efforts are currently underway to repair the East Asia Crossing (EAC) undersea cable after it experienced "double faults" off the coast of Taiwan last weekend, according to Roland Lim, a spokesman for Pacnet, which owns EAC.

The first sign of damage to the EAC cable off the coast of Taiwan came on Aug. 9 at 1:37 a.m., local time, when an alarm signalled that service on EAC Segment D, which links Taiwan and Hong Kong, had been disrupted, Pacnet said in an Aug. 10 Network Event Notification that was obtained by IDG News Service. At the time, traffic on Segment D was transferred to EAC Segment C. However, Segment C suffered a second disruption roughly twelve hours later.

The cause of the faults that hit the EAC cable between Hong Kong and Taiwan is not yet known, but the damage happened at about the same time the southern part of the island and China's southern coast was being pummeled by one of the most powerful typhoons to strike in recent memory. There were no earthquakes recorded by Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau at the time when the disruptions took place.

tempnexus
Premium Member
join:1999-08-11
Boston, MA

tempnexus

Premium Member

DAMN IT, now the price for "Gold" on MMORPG games will go up!!!

KHAAAAAN!!!!

Rocky67
Pencil Neck Geek
Premium Member
join:2005-01-13
Orange, CA

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Interesting information, but what does it have to do with security?

Ivybridge_I7
Cyber-Crime Researcher OpSec
Premium Member
join:2004-06-09
Daytona Beach, FL

3 edits

Ivybridge_I7

Premium Member

said by Rocky67:

Interesting information, but what does it have to do with security?
Yep, and I was waiting for someone to ask that very question. How many computers are in that area of the world that are infected with malware. How many are not patched correctly
and are now drone machines either sending out spam or causing DDos attacks against websites.

I say if a fiber cable is cut then maybe their is less malware being directed toward the United States. If their computers/ servers become infected then will it be used for Phishing or Idenity Theft or will they start sending huge amounts of data to a site like Twitter.

This is why I included the cable map to show it's relations to the west coast of the United States.

It also shows the security risks of under water cables and how they impact the overall performance of the whole internet. If a cable is cut, then data has to be rerouted to another cable in a different direction which may increase latency

Got it "Freddie"

Rocky67
Pencil Neck Geek
Premium Member
join:2005-01-13
Orange, CA

1 recommendation

Rocky67

Premium Member

Duh, yeah. I think I got it.

The news release mentions an underwater cable that, apparently, has some sort of defect. Period. IMO, your attempt to characterize this as security related seems to be a stretch.

And don't call me Freddie.
The Antihero
join:2002-04-09
Enola, PA

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That could explain why we haven't had as many spammers lately on the message board I help run.

Yukishiro
@pldt.net

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Anon

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I think it's OK now but still jumpy at times.