
Russian Ships Near Data Cables Are Too Close for U.S. Comfort - aritraghosh007
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/26/world/europe/russian-presence-near-undersea-cables-concerns-us.html?_r=0
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dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10449673](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10449673)

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drafty
Why exactly should I be worried that Russia is doing what the United States
probably does on a daily basis without making headlines?

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DanielBMarkham
Booby-trapping undersea data cables is a new one. (Note that this is different
from the usual cable-tapping. The implication is not monitoring, but service
disruption.)

Not sure that the U.S. or any of its partners can do much about it, though.
Increase launch capacity and cable-laying speed.

It might be worth it to lay some secret, dark fiber, but beats me how you get
away with doing that without the Russians finding out.

If true, the Russians are clearly exploring new territory here. It's
increasingly obvious that there is a low-level cyberwar well underway between
the Russians, Chinese, and United States (and their proxies). I _think_ the
Chinese would be happy to keep the game at just under the kinetic level, but
the Russians seem hell-bent on seeing how far they can push things -- probably
because of how terribly things are going at home.

One thing is for certain: there will be a counter to this. Lots of tech
available like microwave repeaters, blimps, LEO sats, and so on. While I
couldn't care less about the tit-for-tat involved, at some point the Russians
are going to find a spot that hurts. This will not be a good thing for folks
who want a stable world.

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Luc
Is this... a Pentagon submarine article?
[http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)

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NietTim
But when the US does it, it's a-okay.

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vixen99
On balance if I have to choose, I would say yes.

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NietTim
I'd rather have both not do it.

