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Breaking: Large Internet failure hits Africa and Asia

cnn.com — Large swathes of Asia, the Middle East and north Africa had their high-technology services crippled Thursday following a widespread Internet failure which brought many businesses to a standstill and left others struggling to cope.

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  • deeboe, on 01/31/2008, -9/+86"...caused by a cut undersea cable"??? If that is the case, this could be a timely and costly repair!
    • cageybee, on 01/31/2008, -52/+8This is a work of CIA. They are trying to prevent the Inauguration of Iranian Oil Bourse, which will end US dollar and destroy American Empire.

      http://arrestbushandcheneynow.blogspot.com/2008/01 ...
      • techie4life, on 01/31/2008, -4/+45[citation needed]

        thanks buh bye
        • cageybee, on 01/31/2008, -22/+5here is a piece from the research that proves what i am saying:

          Sabotaging the Exchange—this could be a computer virus, network, communications, or server attack, various server security breaches, or a 9-11-type attack on main and backup facilities.

          · Coup d’état—this is by far the best long-term strategy available to the Americans.

          · Negotiating Acceptable Terms & Limitations—this is another excellent solution to the Americans. Of course, a government coup is clearly the preferred strategy, for it will ensure that the exchange does not operate at all and does not threaten American interests. However, if an attempted sabotage or coup d’etat fails, then negotiation is clearly the second-best available option.

          · Joint U.N. War Resolution—this will be, no doubt, hard to secure given the interests of all other member-states of the Security Council. Feverish rhetoric about Iranians developing nuclear weapons undoubtedly serves to prepare this course of action.

          · Unilateral Nuclear Strike—this is a terrible strategic choice for all the reasons associated with the next strategy, the Unilateral Total War. The Americans will likely use Israel to do their dirty nuclear job.

          · Unilateral Total War—this is obviously the worst strategic choice. First, the U.S. military resources have been already depleted with two wars. Secondly, the Americans will further alienate other powerful nations. Third, major dollar-holding countries may decide to quietly retaliate by dumping their own mountains of dollars, thus preventing the U.S. from further financing its militant ambitions. Finally, Iran has strategic alliances with other powerful nations that may trigger their involvement in war; Iran reputedly has such alliance with China, India, and Russia, known as the Shanghai Cooperative Group, a.k.a. Shanghai Coop and a separate pact with Syria.
          • Tiak, on 01/31/2008, -1/+19"here is a piece from the research that proves what i am saying:"

            I believe you're having a bit of trouble with the English language, allow me to offer my assistance.

            research - a diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories, applications, etc.

            prove - to establish the truth or genuineness of, as by evidence or argument:
          • techie4life, on 02/01/2008, -3/+1cageybee-

            I have looked through you profile, and find it hard to take you seriously. It seems you choose to digg ANYTHING anti-American among other things. I don't know what your beef is with America, because their are many things wrong with our country, but if you would submit a coherent, logical argument backup with data from reliable sources, then maybe you wouldn't get dugg down so much.
          • DogHumpsMonkey, on 02/01/2008, -2/+2Well that is a nifty little bit of baseless speculation you copied and pasted there, Retard. Not research per se, more like paranoid delusions. But hey, I'm no ***** expert in psychiomitry or anything so whatever.
          • cageybee, on 02/01/2008, -1/+2@techie4life

            Here is my answer for you - wake up.
            http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8250619454 ...
            http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-115834326 ...

            I am not anti-american. I gave 8 years of honorable service to this country. When 9/11 happened, I was 2 months at McGuire AFB in support of 9/11, working 16 hour shifts and 6 days per week, processing lots of traveling payments. I became a US citizen on Sep 12, 2001, after coming here in 1995. The very next morning, I had to go to a naturalization ceremony. Do you know how it felt that day for everyone at that ceremony?

            You know, there is a tradition, when an immigrant becomes a US citizen gives that citizen a gift - a US flag. These days, they give those very small flags on a stick. But when I returned from my small deployment to McGuire AFB, I got a flag from the people that I served with, this flag was flown over a major headquarters building on the morning of 9/11. Now, are you saying that I am anti-American???

            I am trying to let people know that you're not free and you need to wake up and look and see what's really going on. Watch the movie Ring of Power. The links for it are above.
        • bluenullity, on 01/31/2008, -4/+7[citation needed]
          thanks buh bye
        • ehalasey, on 01/31/2008, -1/+11@cageybee:
          ci·ta·tion
          –noun
          A short note recognizing a source of information or of a quoted passage.
        • Zalyster, on 02/01/2008, -1/+2Yeah, I generally don't believe sites called arrestbushandcheneynow with 1 post...
      • hmunkey, on 01/31/2008, -2/+5WTF? And GWB is an alien.
      • oenoneablaze, on 02/01/2008, -4/+5seriously, stop making us ron paul supporters look bad--and try learning some english after you get your head out of your tinfoil hat.
        • ShrimpCrackers, on 02/01/2008, -0/+2There are some accounts here that all they do is go "RON PAUL" in every article, while burying or digging down those that support him. Pretty much trying to make him look bad.
    • romistrub, on 01/31/2008, -1/+40Apparently I don't understand The Internet very well... Shouldn't this outage still allow Asian/Middle-Eastern users to access Asian/Middle-Eastern servers? I would suspect that most of what they use is still located locally. At least that would make sense to me.
      • Tiak, on 01/31/2008, -0/+19Networks don't always share information at every possible junction, and as such it is entirely possible that the various portions of internet in these regions are cut off from each other, but for the most part you're right about their ability to access it... I'm not so sure about how local the services they use are though.
        • ilikechaitea, on 01/31/2008, -0/+7thats right...I'm not sure if this is what you meant but in addition to what you said hosting for a lot of these companies could be done on another continent...
      • azbmr, on 02/01/2008, -0/+7Where are the DNS servers? (Really, I don't know where the top-level DNS servers are these days.) The networks might be up, but only accessible via IP addresses.
        • LeeSoong, on 02/01/2008, -0/+4ah, the old network saying comes to mind;

          'make everything you can make - robust,
          and what you can't make more robust, make it redundant.'
        • FLarsen, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1The ISPs cache the hostnames, and update the cache after a set period of time. That is much faster than having to contact the root nameservers every time you try to resolve a hostname.
      • Tarnum, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1They don't have Root Nameserver access (DNS). There are no Root NSs in Asia/Pacific. The name resolution will not work.
        Like it or not, the US is controlling the Internet infrastructure.
    • Tripacer9999, on 01/31/2008, -7/+81Wait, i thought the internet was only in the United States!
      • Trollmaster, on 01/31/2008, -2/+13O RLY?
      • naterpoke, on 01/31/2008, -11/+12no, just like everything else though, we built it
        • GeneralFault, on 01/31/2008, -3/+9Some of it.
          Many countries like South Korea (among several others) greatly outstrip us not though when it comes to speed and percent of population with broadband.
          • capiCrimm, on 02/01/2008, -2/+20you mean percent of population addicted to MMORPG's.
          • ShrimpCrackers, on 02/01/2008, -0/+4Starcraft is NOT an MMORPG!
      • atticus8, on 01/31/2008, -7/+1No, that's the freedom. Sweet shiny freedom inside the United States, evil-doers and terrorists and holes for smoking them out of outside the United States. Ladies and gentleman, the Bush Doctrine.
        • HunterSeeker42, on 02/01/2008, -0/+11Good job. You managed to shoehorn in Bush on a completely unrelated issue.
          • bioskope, on 02/01/2008, -0/+2so Bush didnt put on a wetsuit and cut the cable himself? Damnit I was almost ready to pitch my idea for Hot Shots III to some bigshots in Hollywood
    • bosssmiley, on 01/31/2008, -0/+9Wasn't the threat of cutting of undersea telecoms cables by terrorists or rogue states a plot point in Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon"?
      Half-a-dozen divers and some welding gear = millions, maybe billions, of dollars of lost trade on the electronic bourses: that's a good return on investment.
    • falkonv7l, on 01/31/2008, -2/+77....... in other news Nigerian scams dramatically down!
    • mrASSMAN, on 01/31/2008, -0/+6This happened in... somewhere in Asia last year (can't remember the place, maybe South Korea?), the internet was dead for weeks before repair.
      • monzee, on 01/31/2008, -0/+8Undersea cables in Taiwan were cut by an earthquake. Pretty much the whole of Southeast Asia was affected for weeks.
    • tutivlahos, on 01/31/2008, -0/+5Live coverage:
      http://en.sevenload.com/videos/pVS3mpg/Internet-Cr ...
    • Kr1ngle0, on 01/31/2008, -0/+40Cables?
      I thought it was all tubes.
      • LeeSoong, on 02/01/2008, -0/+4Well, it certainly is not a big truck...
      • poordavey, on 02/01/2008, -0/+6We better get some lottery balls to blast through these tubes to clear up the jam. Damn middle-eastern horse gambling.
    • FadieZ, on 01/31/2008, -1/+19My dad just called from Dubai. Apparently his Internet browser works but MSN doesn't.
      • geekchick82, on 02/01/2008, -1/+36I don't know if I understood that right, but it reminds me of when we finally got a color monitor in place of the old b/w one for our computer, and all my mom was concerned about was whether the new screen would still show her yahoo mail.
    • myranttoyou, on 02/01/2008, -6/+3@deeboe ""...caused by a cut undersea cable"??? If that is the case, this could be a timely and costly repair!"

      No *****, thank Captain Obvious.
    • Asianwaste, on 02/01/2008, -2/+7You can rearrange the punctuation of the headline and it'll still be correct.
      Breaking large internet. Failure hits across Africa and Asia.
    • SingerSirCoda, on 02/01/2008, -0/+6Not what timely means.
    • Sabretou, on 02/01/2008, -0/+2I'm on the Western Indian coast, and the Internet was painfully slow for the past two days, all IM services and India-based sites were working fine, though. Also, some sites were much faster than others, such as Digg. ;)
    • skyshock1, on 02/01/2008, -1/+1Um, I highly doubt they're going to do an underwater fiber splice. Most likely they'll just run a couple new ones.
      • _skin_, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1Your crazy. A splice would be way easier than running "a couple new ones". Do you have any idea how long these cables are? These are not your average run of the mill patch cables.
    • _skin_, on 02/01/2008, -0/+3And where was the Cloverfield monster when all of this was going down?
  • tommyredcoat, on 01/31/2008, -2/+97Redundancy systems FTW?
    • mufasa, on 01/31/2008, -0/+16Yeah, this reminds me of something that happened late '07, a fire in a tunnel close to Oslo Central Station, a few cables cut in that one tunnel caused the whole train system in most of southern Norway to collapse for over a day, along with the train company's website and support phone.
    • drywaller79, on 02/01/2008, -0/+10Totally, don't you think they would have a more redundant system for such an important connection?
    • goofygarber, on 02/01/2008, -0/+16In other news, the 4 businesses with internet in Africa are PISSED! The 200,000 email scammers in internet cafe's are just displeased.
    • Genma, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1think about how much it costs for the single route, there are ways around it through other companies backbones but there's really no avoiding such a massive loss in bandwidth. even if there were cooperative backup routes that could handle the capacity, geographical detours would be killing the latency.
  • icexe, on 01/31/2008, -14/+190OMG!! Its the monster from Cloverfield!!!! We're doomed!!!
    • romistrub, on 01/31/2008, -1/+16!!!
    • justice7, on 01/31/2008, -1/+14...its still alive!
    • LongShlong, on 01/31/2008, -33/+3Worst, movie, ever.
      • Jereso, on 01/31/2008, -2/+21You have no good taste. Or you are very susceptible to motion sickness.
        • LongShlong, on 01/31/2008, -19/+4Somehow motion sickness coincides with good taste? Or was it the fact that the monster (when it jumped at the helicopter at the end) grew exponentially for a few moments, or most of the passengers survived the crash, or the camera survived the whole thing... Or the first 20+ mins was character building for completely flat, boring douche-baggy characters...

          Hmmmm!
          • Tiak, on 01/31/2008, -1/+12"or" indicates alternatives that don't necessarily have any relationship to each other... He was criticizing the camera-work while asserting that it was still a good movie.
          • jkizzle, on 01/31/2008, -2/+1everybodys a critic...
          • Boor, on 02/01/2008, -0/+2Note to self, show up 20 minutes late when I go to see that film....
          • p0ss, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1the first twenty minutes were good, it got progressively less believable, until eventually your left in total awe at the resillience and longevity of the camera and absolute digust and the idiocy of the main characters. seriously people, if your going out into a city full of vicious monsters, take a weapon!!
    • Chompy, on 01/31/2008, -1/+11That's probably why it got pissed. Don't get between Cloverfield and it's MySpace page.
    • TheZorch, on 02/01/2008, -0/+5Nah! Its pissed off because the Saudis wouldn't allow Slusho into the country.
    • p0ss, on 02/01/2008, -0/+2quick someone grab an indestructible camera with infinite batteries! and don't worry about weapons or transport, lets run strait at it to rescue someone who is almost certainly dead!
    • taquitohater, on 02/01/2008, -0/+2Nope, it's the Jews. Close though.
    • treeboxgrass, on 02/01/2008, -1/+2It's*
  • inurb, on 01/31/2008, -21/+11I thought you couldn't sever the Internet because it would find another way around in order to carry the data?
    • Aero1, on 01/31/2008, -3/+12stop watching terminator
    • rizon, on 01/31/2008, -0/+24You can, it will just be slower. As stated in the article, the speeds were just reduced, albeit by a lot.
    • metapop, on 02/01/2008, -1/+4you're confusing the internet with the borg.
    • nexmachina, on 02/01/2008, -1/+2BGP routing, but in this case, this is far beyond routers and switches, these are actually lines that provide end points.
    • mphree, on 02/01/2008, -1/+2Exactly like nexmachina said. I think what you're referring to is the fibre backbone on land. Which in the United States, at least, should have self-healing rings to reroute data. However they very very rarely work.
  • telegon, on 01/31/2008, -1/+170A boat anchor cut the cable - that's priceless.
    • tommyredcoat, on 01/31/2008, -3/+64Or pricey. Just depends how you look at it.
      • Slovenian6474, on 01/31/2008, -3/+19Ya, those anchors cost a lot.
      • Chompy, on 01/31/2008, -0/+27Midsize cargo vessel of unknown registry: $950,000
        3-ton anchor: $20,000
        Slowing the internet way down for 950,000,000 people: priceless.
    • phaeton99, on 01/31/2008, -2/+15Priceless and a likely story. COVER-UP!
      • SlimFastForYou, on 02/01/2008, -0/+2You may be on to something here. I went to see the Internet traffic report ( http://www.internettrafficreport.com ) for North America, Asia, and Africa. According to the Asia report, the only main router in Asia that is unreachable right now is Iran's and it's been unreachable for over 24 hours. In Africa, it's a router in South Africa. The 3 California routers are responding to 97-98% of packets fortunately for me :).
    • legoalert33, on 01/31/2008, -1/+17the ship is weighed down by the massiveness of the internet
      • jhshukla, on 01/31/2008, -0/+14trucks are no longer sufficient... we need cargo ships.
    • stillasleep00, on 01/31/2008, -0/+60I'd like to be the one that tells the captain "Dude, you broke the internet."
    • VitriolAndAngst, on 02/01/2008, -2/+1Well, this doesn't seem so far-fetched. I imagine that the cable was just rolled out into the water and it's weight took it to the bottom. It's too hard for most any animal to hurt it (beyond a shark), and probably sinks into the muck. A boat with an anchor near the ends would be just the thing to cut the cable.
      My guess is they need to at least bury the ends -- I don't know what the reasonable depth is for anchors.
      • Matteos, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1A shark? That's unpossible, didn't you see Jaws II. Cables>sharks.
    • Boor, on 02/01/2008, -0/+5The internet is not a big truck, you can't just dump things on it. This includes anchors.
    • p0ss, on 02/01/2008, -0/+3Pirates?
  • mutwirik, on 01/31/2008, -7/+25I can still access Digg!
    • MarkTaiwan, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2same here, I noticed the connection is a bit slow, but for me that's it. :-)
      • zwaldowski, on 02/01/2008, -0/+3Naw, that's Digg in America, too.
      • thr33m, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1And also I noticed the comment sucked ass
    • crazybugger, on 02/01/2008, -0/+2Digg does not need internet connection!
  • Aero1, on 01/31/2008, -34/+5Ok, who pissed of Tom Cruise? DAMN YOU ANONYMOUS, SEE WHAT YOU DID!!!! lol
  • whoisme, on 01/31/2008, -7/+51I can see all these company outsourced to India rethinking if they should continue to do so...
    • mygans, on 01/31/2008, -2/+5ya right.....they had to outsource their thinking before coming to a decision....get over it......
    • hmunkey, on 01/31/2008, -2/+14Well, outsourcing to India did save them billions of dollars, so I don't think they'll be sad.
      You know it's true, but you can digg me down.
    • xLinuxFanx, on 01/31/2008, -6/+1Here Here! SAVE USA JOBS!! NOW!!!
    • prophetpimp, on 01/31/2008, -5/+6Yhea. Those damn Indians. they dont know how to use Satellite system... ohhh wait

      Get over yourself. The out sourcing industry is ready for this kind of ***** and has back ups.
    • HanSolo69, on 01/31/2008, -1/+3Yea because there has never been any sort of internet failure in the US, and I mean, this has never happened before in India so that means it must happen like, all the time, right? I see your argument.
    • viralin123, on 02/01/2008, -1/+3we're serving all the major telecom providers in US read it ALL of them... did u experience any inconvenience??? stop blaming india and its outsourcing for your shortcomings...fat lazy retards!!! wake up and smell the coffee India is here to stay like it or not...internet or no internet...
  • itzdiceman, on 01/31/2008, -8/+77This is why the rest of the world can't have nice things.
  • fluidfoundation, on 01/31/2008, -4/+218Those poor poor gold farmers.... ;)
  • mstump, on 01/31/2008, -6/+30I blame the under-30 crowd.
  • strafefire, on 01/31/2008, -3/+46FTA: "Nations that have been spared the chaos include Israel -- whose traffic uses a different route -- and Lebanon and Iraq. "

    Of everything in the article, this stuck with me the most...
    • gtapro92, on 02/01/2008, -2/+6why do u say that
      • freezeout, on 02/01/2008, -5/+3ITS TEH JOO CONSPIRACY!
        • KataLieb, on 02/20/2008, -0/+1ITS TEH MUZLIM CONSPIRACY (BOXCUTTERS INCLUDED)
    • Hoov, on 02/01/2008, -0/+3"Many Middle East governments have backup satellite systems in case of cable failure."
    • KataLieb, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1Israel doesnt trust any of its neighbours enough to run a cable thru their territory, so I bet they have a sea cable and some satellites...
      In addition to biological and chemical and nuclear weapons in the hundreds, and nuclear submarines and what not.
      Demand UN inspections of Dimona nuclear weapons site immediately!
      If Israel wont allow it, enter sanctions and bombing of the country by USA!
  • geekchic, on 01/31/2008, -6/+74This was nothing like a "breaking" story 2 hours and 20 minutes ago when you submitted it.

    The story has been majoring in the tech news for the past 24 hours at the very least.
    • bluenullity, on 01/31/2008, -1/+28Digg is slow, news at 11...12... no wait tomorrow at 11.
      • Lyph5, on 01/31/2008, -6/+2What's sad is that slashdot covered this story before Digg did.
        I thought the whole idea of Digg was for the important stuff to hit the front page faster?
    • Chompy, on 01/31/2008, -0/+4Maybe the submitter is located behind the cut. It took 20 hours just to loaded the submit page.
    • heathuff23, on 02/01/2008, -0/+2I agree...I heard about this yesterday! digg blows
    • gravity71, on 02/01/2008, -0/+2maybe the word 'breaking' was referred to the cable :D
  • DurtyJ, on 01/31/2008, -0/+40Looks like we are going to have to go a week without tentacle monsters and gold farming,

    How will the internet cope?
    • Tiak, on 01/31/2008, -1/+16Japan and Korea were relatively unaffected. The supply of tentacle-monsters and gold farming remains undamaged.
    • passedoutghost, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1Huzza no more scammers from Nigeria!
  • jameszol, on 01/31/2008, -12/+2Crap, I was having web-based software developed over there...I think the estimated time for completion just doubled/tripled...
    • mazerrackham, on 01/31/2008, -0/+5I'm sure any reputable developer would keep a local sandbox to work in.

      Actually, if this foreign company is anything like the developers I've worked with, completion time would go down due to increased productivity without the web to distract them :)
    • RyeBrye, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1"Actually, if this foreign company is anything like the developers I've worked with, completion time would go down due to increased productivity without the web to distract them :)"

      Nope - productivity will shoot to zero... Cut off our internet and it's like cutting off our air - we'll do anything to find a source for it... including rigging up ghetto GPRS -> bluetooth -> computer -> sharing internet over LAN just so we can get our fix... Until that network connection goes back up - no work gets done. period.
  • flaflashr, on 01/31/2008, -13/+11Hmm, and this happens 2 days after Bush asks for Billion$ to secure the Internet? Does that boat anchor have "CIA" emblazoned on it?
    • ThreeDee912, on 01/31/2008, -2/+2/conspiracy /sarcasm
    • ashnbell, on 02/01/2008, -1/+3"billions to secure the Internet?" hadn't heard of that one, but given the occurrence of the event I'm happy to assume you're right until such time as i find out other wise.... was personally looking down the list to find someone who'd observed how easy it was to wipe out large chunks of the globes Internet connections, but assuming you're not just some nut making it up I'm even more suspicious.
      (by the way, denouncing what someone has to say with the word 'conspiracy' is ***** retarded. conspiracies are commonplace... for example... any trial in a courtroom that involves multiple defendants has a well paid conspiracy theorist spelling out his/her conspiracy theory to the jury in an attempt to gain a prosecution for his/her employer... i rest my case)
  • dodgejon, on 01/31/2008, -1/+41wait...so if someone wanted to run havok on saveral nations, they could cut underwater cables and cause millions in damages with a boat anchor???
    • romistrub, on 01/31/2008, -1/+6You'd think these cables would be underground or something...
      • DrDigg, on 01/31/2008, -0/+6shifting continental shelf, plus the cost of digging a trench thousands of feet below see level
        • romistrub, on 01/31/2008, -6/+1I looked up "continental shelf" on wikipedia (lol), and read nothing about it shifting. Not that I'm saying you're wrong... rather that I don't understand what you're talking about. Did you mean continental drift? If so, that wouldn't be hard to account for with a small section (one kilometer, say) of flexible cable. Also, you wouldn't need to dig a trench. Just have some sort of machine that chills at the bottom of the ocean, grabs dirt from around it, and puts it over the cable... like those massive tunnel-digging machines.

          Anyways, I'm being stupid. Obviously, if it was economically feasible to have it underground, it would be. And it's not, so it wasn't. Word.
        • evodude, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1Well, romistrub, at least you're taking the time to look it up. Now read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subduction , and you'll probably have a better appreciation for what he's talking about.
      • BlueSkyfish, on 02/01/2008, -2/+1Or have a protective coating at least.
    • xoxota, on 02/01/2008, -0/+4Dang! Good thing Al Qaeda hasn't heard of this!
    • VitriolAndAngst, on 02/01/2008, -0/+11The amount of mayhem an educated person could do is astounding.
      There either isn't much desire for people to do great harm or,...
      ... well, I think terrorism is very exaggerated. When you realize how many soft points there are -- anyone would a few thousand dollars and some help could bring shut down power systems, effect water supplies -- etc.
    • Nar1117, on 02/01/2008, -0/+3Is that how most overseas internet communications are sent? Through under-water cables? What about satellite? I've never really thought about how I can IM with a friend in Switzerland while I'm here in the US. This is a serious question though... can anyone add any insight?
  • mitchstripling, on 01/31/2008, -14/+1I think that this and what's happening in China tells us something about the fragility of our infrastructure. Blogged about it here: http://www.crisisville.com/
    • romistrub, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2What's happening in China? The Olympics?
      • Tiak, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1I believe he meant the Great Firewall... Which has been "happening" for a rather long time.
    • hmunkey, on 01/31/2008, -1/+4No one gives a crap about your junk blog. Don't advertise it here.
  • wdtrap, on 01/31/2008, -4/+15I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees these types of vulnerabilities as potential targets of terrorism. If something as simple as an underwater cable (which has little or no security in place) can be damaged, entire economies could be crippled.
    • romistrub, on 01/31/2008, -1/+4How do you propose protecting said cable?
      • tommyredcoat, on 01/31/2008, -0/+17Sharks
        • DrDigg, on 01/31/2008, -1/+19with fricken lazers
        • tommyredcoat, on 01/31/2008, -1/+12No. Not with "fricken lazers".

          I picked sharks. I get to choose what accessories they have, and they have fin-mounted harpoons. End of discussion.
        • mysedai, on 01/31/2008, -0/+3You both win funny.
      • DrDigg, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1actually sharks sometimes attack these lines
      • p0ss, on 02/01/2008, -0/+4I propose we put cameras on everyone at all times, listen to everyones conversations and arrest anyone we want for no reason!
    • scallon, on 01/31/2008, -3/+1Being a bit apocalyptic aren't you?
    • Tiak, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1The thing is, those sections of the world that could be easily damaged by things like this are proportionally less likely to rely a great deal on it. Dubai is a bit of an exception to the rule because they've grown so fast, but that is likely going to be fixed rather quickly after the panic this will cause.
    • VitriolAndAngst, on 02/01/2008, -0/+4Well, while we were treating everyone nice -- things seemed to work.
      Now that we are angering everyone -- we may have to harden all of these targets at huge costs.
      I for one, vote that we become nice again and start trusting people -- it actually works.
  • liquidjamm, on 01/31/2008, -7/+4It's related to yesterday's undersea cable failure? Breaking? Do you mean Breaking cable??
    • kss42, on 02/01/2008, -1/+1Breaking, as in "Breaking News": News of an event which just happened, or which we just recently became aware of.
  • Frnnkdlxx, on 01/31/2008, -12/+4Well you didn't think that the CIA and other intergovernmental agencies who've supported coupes and economic hitmen in africa and southeast asia to allow them to learn about what they've done to them do you? lol. let's not forget, they're not being flouridated, they could actually learn stuff. Of course this was going to happen, interesting they were on it so fast.

    Remember, if you think it's just a conspiracy, examine confessions of an economic hitman,
    cia killed patrice lumumba, france and british controlled south africa instigate guerilla war and genocide in africa. it's all there for you to see and I don't expect you to believe me personally. I've been researching this for years, and I find myself nonchalantly accepting the media's lies: Oh, it's just a power shortage when billions access the power lines like that... etc, etc. We've got to abolish the CIA if we do anything this election year. They're destroying our image abroad. Soon, we won't be able to vacation ANYWHERE.
    • mythicflux, on 01/31/2008, -2/+3Cartman: So now, the inevitable question: if terrorists didn't cause 9/11, who did? (begins to use his fingers to show the numbers as he says them) Remember that there are in fact two towers. Two minus one is one; one one - 11; two minus one is one; one one, and there are nine members on Silverstein's board of directors. That's nine-one-one. Nine-eleven. And take 2 - 1 + 9/11 and you get 12, which leads us all to the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. (click. Kyle now appears superimposed on the 9/11 picture already onscreen) Kyle!
      Kyle: Me??
      Cartman: Twelve contains the numbers one and two, just like the toilet yesterday where somebody went number two instead of number one! And one and two with 911 and you get 914! Drop the 4 and it's 91! Exactly the score Kyle got on his spelling test twelve days after 9/11! Who has the most to gain from 9/11?! Kyle! Who was nowhere to be found the morning the towers fell?! Kyle! Who dropped the deuce in the urinal?! Kyle! But probably the most damning of all is the evidence seen in this photo of Tower 2! (clicks, and another shot of the Twin Towers is shown) When I zoomed in I saw what first appeared to be a blur, (zooms in on the picture, which just becomes pixilated) but when I computer-enhanced it, (the pixilation disappears as the picture sharpens - it's a drawing of an evil Kyle with a large, sharp knife in his right hand) You almost got away with it, you sneaky butt hole.


      [You see the 9/11 conspiracy is in fact a government conspiracy!]
      • Frnnkdlxx, on 02/01/2008, -0/+2Once again, we're not talking about 9/11, we're talking about the cia and fbi's admitted crime. I admit, I'm a conspiracy theorist in regards to Africa, but why shouldn't I be? After Dr. Boyd. E. Graves found the US Navy document outlining the development of the AIDS virus inAmerica, you could call me an eternal pessimist in regards to America's dealings in Africa.

        Also... I just provided a couple of documented cases where the CIA as well as Belgium admit to killing Patrice Lumumba because he was going to give his country back to his people. As you can see today, D. R of Congo has a genocide every 5 years, funded by each African border state, most of which are proxies of their former colonial masters.

        But then again, I muse, let me muse about your criminal government, let me muse.
        • Digger1218, on 02/01/2008, -1/+0Will you make me a tinfoil hat?
          • Frnnkdlxx, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1We use saram wrap now. Tin foil can not be microwaved.
  • dogstar0125, on 01/31/2008, -1/+131In unrelated news, internettrafficreport.com reports that, for reasons unknown, spam is down 75% over the past 24 hours.
    • hansk, on 01/31/2008, -5/+4coloration does not imply causation!
    • Goodbyeworld, on 01/31/2008, -1/+20Researchers say that 84.5% of statistics are made up on the spot.
    • Tiak, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1I'm missing my loyal 419ers already...
    • kthx, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1Ron Paul spam up 400%!
  • Rotzooi, on 01/31/2008, -0/+199O no, how will I reach my Nigerian Prince!? I need to send him $9000 ASAP to receive $10m!
    • turbopro, on 01/31/2008, -1/+50Friend, Friend! Send it to me, I'll make sure he gets it!
      signed, Nigerian Prince's personal assistant.
      • Mawds, on 02/01/2008, -0/+5I'm the Assistant to the Nigerian Prince's Personal Assistant, so you should send it to me first.
        Chain of command and all that. Once I've checked it's all fine I'll pass it on.... honest.
        Actually the Nigerian Prince's PA has just informed me that you should also add an additional $3000. Doing this will allow you to receive a choice of free gift. You can have a diamond, a ruby or a emerald.
        Stocks are limited so act fast to avoid disappointment.
    • mrASSMAN, on 01/31/2008, -2/+6Are you sure it isn't OVER 9000?!!?!

      no? ok, my mistake.
    • passedoutghost, on 01/31/2008, -1/+0Do you get his wives and yacht too?
    • ryan83189, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1I've got a better business proposition, I want to sell you a bridge in Brooklyn, fresh paint.
    • iSeeU, on 02/01/2008, -1/+1As a Nigerian I'm glad you all are wising up to this crap. Resist greed people, and you will not fall.
  • AshamedAmerican, on 01/31/2008, -2/+36SkyNet?
    • solid12345, on 01/31/2008, -4/+1Hopefully it is the 1984 skynet and not the ***** 2007 Sarah Connor Chronicles skynet.
  • vamper, on 01/31/2008, -12/+5yes my plan is unfolding so i will have all these country's/contents getting rick-rolled

    (xkcd reference)
  • Slovenian6474, on 01/31/2008, -3/+33Man, is this what the RIAA has come to?
  • UltramegaOK, on 01/31/2008, -12/+7Shame really. Those emails told me Thursday was my deadline to wire money to the Prince of Nigeria.......
    • benbfree, on 01/31/2008, -2/+2I'm certain he will be very forgiving and accept a late payment with minimal extra charges.
  • has2k1, on 01/31/2008, -10/+5Asia, can you hear me now?
  • davidkeithjones, on 01/31/2008, -6/+2Thats the problem with a lot of these nations. They invest just enough to get the net working but then spend little to nothing to make sure they have a redundant backbone. Ah well, many nations went through growing pains during the rise of the internet they are now feeling the pain we felt years ago.
    • prophetpimp, on 01/31/2008, -2/+1Living in Mumbai India. Got torrent running whole day with got speed the whole day. so STFU.
      • davidkeithjones, on 01/31/2008, -2/+2Its a large failure, nobody said that every single person was affected. I think you need to STFU.
      • Magnut, on 02/01/2008, -0/+0Dude, its about infrastructure, even the U.S. doesn't really have an amazing infrastructure. Japan does though. gg.
  • hansk, on 01/31/2008, -6/+128africa has the internet?
  • RaidenWoW, on 01/31/2008, -4/+42Yay I can play Starcraft without all those Koreans on!!! :)
    • passedoutghost, on 01/31/2008, -5/+4Korea wasn't affected. It said Asia which meant India and Pakistan. Not South East Asia. So.....prepared to be owned.
      • adoggz, on 01/31/2008, -1/+7right, cause Asia doesn't imply the whole continent of Asia, just a small portion of Asia.
        • wootup, on 02/01/2008, -2/+1RTFA
          "Reports say that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain Pakistan and India, are all experiencing severe problems."
      • unorginalityftw, on 02/01/2008, -0/+4Southeast Asia? I don't think you know where Korea is...
    • DurtyJ, on 02/01/2008, -2/+1Without the koreans, who are you going to play with?
    • Seantacular, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1lol
    • broodking, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1those Koreans r sneaky so watchout
  • zaribars, on 01/31/2008, -4/+14"Industry experts are blaming damage to two undersea cables but it is not known what caused the damage."

    Spongebob? Jaws? Ron Paul?
    • solid12345, on 01/31/2008, -3/+4I read Jaws as Jews lol. Jews are responsible for everything it seems.
    • waspbr, on 01/31/2008, -1/+3I blame scientology
    • metapop, on 02/01/2008, -0/+4the powers that be see to it that ron paul is nowhere near cable. it couldn't have been him.
    • HunterSeeker42, on 02/01/2008, -0/+0I blame Bush.
    • LeeSoong, on 02/01/2008, -0/+2Gojira !
  • spineaches, on 01/31/2008, -13/+4anyone else see this as incredibly suspicious? especially as Israel, Lebanon, and Iraq DID NOT loose power because they were on a "different router"???
    • Tiak, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2What the hell are you quoting "different router" for when no source said that to begin with?... While we're at it, why are you talking about losing power?...

      Telecoms in Israel tend not to be all the friendly with other telecoms in the region, and as such, they didn't throw money into the other telecom's hat to lay the cable. Instead, they laid their own cable. The Israelis let the Lebanese in on this, as they were willing to help.

      As for Iraq, I would assume they still have connections because the US military likes the idea of redundant communications... (And of course the alliance with Israel)
      • spineaches, on 01/31/2008, -4/+1hey excuse me but ***** you, it was jus a question. sorry im not up to date on the situation and also all knowledgable of the tech side of it. sheesh.

        ok rereading my comment it was rather dumb but still dude. come on.
    • noahhoward, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2No. If it were only Israel maybe.
  • digindrivefast, on 01/31/2008, -2/+1Screwed!
  • cbrumm, on 01/31/2008, -13/+2The Asia I care about (China, Korea, Japan, Australia, etc) are fine. The headline is misleading, should read "The parts of Asia no one will miss don't have Internets!"
    • heypetray, on 01/31/2008, -0/+8Australia? In Asia?
      *Head Explodes*
  • maretten, on 01/31/2008, -9/+28This just in: Silly Penis.
    • mysedai, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1There are no other types.
    • hmunkey, on 01/31/2008, -1/+3search silly penis on google. this guy is in the top 3 results

      he is the #1 result if you put it in quotes or if you use another language google.

      he's a legend
    • FadieZ, on 01/31/2008, -2/+9Dude, I'm laughing my ass off at your comments page.
  • spartan789, on 01/31/2008, -4/+13Why do people put "Breaking" into every news headline? Please stop. It's getting kind of annoying.
    • LeeSoong, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1"Breaking Wind - storms increasing because of global warming"
    • satanswetnipple, on 02/01/2008, -0/+0BREAKING - Digg user spartan789 sick of breaking headlines!
  • Skitzzo, on 01/31/2008, -0/+11Anyone else find it annoying that stories take so long to hit the front page now? This is old news by now...
    • skyfire1, on 01/31/2008, -0/+2It takes longer for stories across the world to reach us.
    • GreenAlien, on 02/01/2008, -0/+2It takes time for the Asian carrier pigeons to reach Digg, and Kevin has to man-handle each one.
      • skyfire1, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1He also has to sit on the bird's nest to wait until they hatch.
  • jls33fsls, on 01/31/2008, -9/+6Wait, Africa has the internets?
  • dkern, on 01/31/2008, -1/+6Its just practice. We are next.
  • masbestiaquetu, on 01/31/2008, -2/+3*****! cloverfield's eating it, and now the USA has an excuse to call a hammerdown and nuke the entire middle eastern region.
  • ZenMojo, on 01/31/2008, -1/+7*sigh* Outsourcing FTL.
  • benbfree, on 01/31/2008, -5/+6It looks like Anon has gotten a little sidetracked from their mission...
  • jbob2000, on 01/31/2008, -2/+12This just in, Blizzard has noticed a significant decrease in gold farmers in the last couple of hours.
  • SaladCactusKing, on 01/31/2008, -2/+5Internet: Serious For Business.
  • mysedai, on 01/31/2008, -2/+2They broke the internet!
  • xXGeechXx, on 01/31/2008, -1/+16There may never be a better time to play Starcraft
  • webjive81, on 01/31/2008, -2/+12I wonder if that's why I've received considerably less spam today.
  • Fiber, on 01/31/2008, -4/+3Dugg for the title including "Breaking".
  • Zakalwe2, on 01/31/2008, -2/+2See: Stephenson's "Mother Earth Motherboard" for a great treatment on undersea cable laying.
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