"We expect it will be fishing vessels that damaged the cable but it is very rare that we have two problems at the same time."

And just like that, Shetland goes offline.

Pay attention to subsea cables. Putin does.
bbc.com/news/uk-scotla… Communications to Shetland have been completely shut down af
2/ Shetland is connected via SHEFA-2 (SHEtland-FAroes).

If the Mainland-Shetland cable is cut (e.g happened in 2014 near Orkney), backup routing *is* available:

SHEFA-2 to Faroe Islands, then to UK via FARICE-1 backhaul (Faroe & Iceland)

But double breaks = no backup route.
3/ Fishing damage to subsea cables is a big thing.

Bottom trawlers are a common offender.

They can snag surface laid cable segments + gear & make a mess.

They can also muck up marine habitats, as this @MontereyAq video illustrates.
4/ Subsea cables are typically buried.

Sometimes segments wind up exposed for a bit.

Detailed warnings are issued because of the high risk of snagging by trawlers.

E.g. inspection & reburial of a spliced & repaired segment of SHEFA-2 was recently postponed b/c of bad weather.
5/ #Shetland shows: even with redundancy, the right cuts = total outage.

The capability to deliver such a disruptive blow to our information systems is *exactly* why Russia keeps mapping cables & doing exercises.

Story: theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/j… He said that meant Moscow could “put at risk and potential
6/ @mercoglianos just reminded me of some cable cutting history.

Wikipedia has the story of how the 🇬🇧British cut key German telegraph cables at the outset of #WWI.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CS_Alert_… When Britain entered World War I, one of its first acts was
7/ UPDATE: a UK flagged fishing vessel reportedly responsible for #Shetland cable damage.

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More from @jsrailton

Oct 17
Saudi Arabia just imprisoned an 🇺🇸American citizen for 16 years

For tweeting.

From the US.

He lives in Florida & was arrested on a trip to visit family.

By @joshrogin 1/
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
2/ Saudi Arabia keeps grabbing people on visits home.

And sending them to prison for mild tweets.

This country absolutely scoffs at democratic freedoms.

And is trying to scare everyone into silence.
3/ The @StateDept missed the hearing. Very unfortunate.

I sincerely hope that *every effort* is indeed being made to secure Mr. Almadi's freedom.

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Imagine if your critical infrastructure depended on this man's whims.
Free eh? Let's debunk this right now.

The US & other Govs pay you handsomely for Starlink.

And loads of Ukrainians scrape money together each month for the service.
Elon, there are brave people fighting tonight in Ukraine.

When you got them the right tech at the right time, they thanked you as a hero.

Please. Stop jerking them around.
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In the (long) meantime, investors must be kept excited, distracted & confident.

Musk does this w/stunts. Like Ukraine. 1/
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It will have probably disrupted conflict for a long time to come.
3/ Starlink came at the right time after the Viasat hack, and quickly enabled Ukraine to reconnect not only the battlefield...

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And it earned Musk & Starlink massive global publicity & optimism.
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Oct 4
I can't think of a field of knowledge not presently struggling with waves of misinformation & disinformation.
Even in fields like astrophysics, crackpots & cooks are constantly pumping disnfo, trying to go viral.

Like the *discredited crank* who tricked people into concluding that @NASAWebb disproved the Big Bang (false!).

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Please, bookmark @johnfocook's cheat sheet!
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Oct 2
BREAKING: journalists & human rights defenders hacked with #Pegasus in 🇲🇽#Mexico.

Years *after* spyware scandals & new President's promise that abuses were over.

THREAD 1/

Report by @R3Dmx ejercitoespia.r3d.mx
We @citizenlab did forensic validation: citizenlab.ca/2022/10/new-pe… Key Takeaways Mexican digital rights organization R3D (Red eOur technical validation of forensic artifacts collected fro
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When Pres. @lopezobrador_ took office, he promised hacking abuses were a thing of the past...
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