[Vision2020] So You Think You've Got Online Problems . . .

Tom Hansen thansen at moscow.com
Thu Apr 7 13:04:28 PDT 2011


Courtesy of The Guardian (United Kingdom) at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/06/georgian-woman-cuts-web-access

-------------------------------------------------------

Georgian woman cuts off web access to whole of Armenia

Entire country loses internet for five hours after woman, 75, slices
through cable while scavenging for copper

An elderly Georgian woman was scavenging for copper to sell as scrap when
she accidentally sliced through an underground cable and cut off internet
services to all of neighbouring Armenia, it emerged on Wednesday.

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.

A spokesman for Georgia's interior ministry said the woman was temporarily
released "on account of her old age" but could face more questioning.

The damage was detected by a system monitoring the fibre-optic link from
western Europe and a security team was immediately dispatched to the spot,
where the woman was arrested. The interior ministry said she had no
accomplices.

The cable is owned by the Georgian railway network. It is heavily
protected, but landslides or heavy rain may have exposed it to scavengers.

Pulling up unused copper cables for scrap is a common means of making
money in the former Soviet Union. Some entrepreneurs have even used
tractors to wrench out hundreds of metres of cable from the former nuclear
testing ground at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan.

-------------------------------------------------------

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to
changeand the Realist adjusts his sails."

 - Unknown




More information about the Vision2020 mailing list