A 75-year old grandmother accidentally cut off Internet service to Armenia residents on Thursday, after she was looking for copper. The elderly woman single-handedly took down an entire network in Georgia after she sliced through the fiber cable with a shovel; Azerbaijan's service was also disrupted.
While the elderly lady was looking for scrap metal, she stumbled upon the underground fiber-optic cable, cutting it open with her shovel to look for copper. As Foxnews and Nakedsecurity explain, the intent of cutting open the cable was to steal the copper to sell it. The shovel wielding woman was nicknamed the 'spade-hacker' by local media outlets.
The fiber that was sliced served all of Armenia, more than 90% of Georgia and parts of Azerbaijan. Service was disrupted for more than five hours while the cable was repaired, restoring Internet to Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan residents.
The elderly woman was arrested at the scene and later released after the investigation and may face charges.
Comments (58)
Replythey only had one backbone going into the country? wow... you'd think they would have at least some type of redundancy
exactly my though..... wow that's crazy and scary...
we are talking about very small nations with low population, borders tensions and no connection to ocean.
It's funny that she just decided to cut into it for copper. She had no idea if that line was carrying electricity. Cutting into could've sent her flying through the air!
we are talking about very small nations with low population, borders tensions and no connection to ocean.
Population of the countries in question:
Georgia: 4,636,400 (so 90% would be about 4,172,760)
Azerbaijan: 9,047,000
Armenia: 3,262,200
That is 16,481,960 people left without internet access (assuming all of them had it to begin with). That would be similar to one of the larger (or several of the smaller) US states losing internet access simply because of a cut in a single cable.
Population of the countries in question:
Georgia: 4,636,400 (so 90% would be about 4,172,760)
Azerbaijan: 9,047,000
Armenia: 3,262,200
That is 16,481,960 people left without internet access (assuming all of them had it to begin with). That would be similar to one of the larger (or several of the smaller) US states losing internet access simply because of a cut in a single cable.
Wow, Mexico City alone has about 22 Million, an let's not talk about Tokio and the like
they are not the only ones. wasnt there a recent underwater cable cut leaving some country without internet?
Read again what I wrote. I never said SHE KNEW it was fiber, only that it didn't have current (perhaps thinking it was an old dead cable).
Wow, Mexico City alone has about 22 Million, an let's not talk about Tokio and the like
Yeah, there are some cities that have incredibly high population density. So what? That still doesn't excuse the fact that cutting one cable killed internet access to rougly 17 million people (in three different countries!!). That is a LOT of people, no matter how you look at it. My city has roughly half a million in the metro area, and I can guarantee you that there is no way in hell that cutting a single cable would take out internet access to EVERYONE here.
Time to euthanize...
No don't be so silly, more like euthanize the people who laid the only cable that shallow in the first place.
lol
Stupid granny, oh look a big massive cable it must have copper in it. Even if there was copper what about if there was electricity going through it ?
But one cable for an entire country, the UK law states telecom cables have to be at least 350mm down but such an important cable should be down a few metre's to avoid these sort of incidents.
What's next, Grandpa cuts of gas supply to Australia.
That headline would most likely read "An elderly man exploded in Australia after...".
Yay, for redundancy. LMAO
nevermind
Cool news! Two days ago. Neowin on the ball again.
Who gives a damn when it was originally reported, I never saw the report and don't sit on the internet all day everyday looking at every tech news site like you must do.
Pardon, today is Thursday, you living ahead of everyone one else, fancy giving us the lotto number for this coming Saturday?
Pardon, today is Thursday, you living ahead of everyone one else, fancy giving us the lotto number for this coming Saturday?
Pardon, today is Thursday, you living ahead of everyone one else, fancy giving us the lotto number for this coming Saturday?
Today maybe Thursday but the cable was cut last Monday and reported by other news sites 2 days ago
They arrested her? Only in Armenia.
She would have been arrested in the UK as well. Criminal damage, and theft.
She would have been arrested in the UK as well. Criminal damage, and theft.
US as well. Hell, we have people who will steal outdoor A/C units here to get at the copper coils inside.
haha, way to go old granny
"ops, i accidentally the internet"
Huh?
Huh?
*facepalm*
*facepalm*
Hahahaha
+1
LAWL xD
Pointing out here, fiber cable typically only has a small amount of copper in it, from my experience, usually used to keep it rigid or as a guide/hanging wire. So I am not sure what she was really doing.. maybe Soviet Russia spy!
You're saying you'd expect her to know its just a fibre cable?
Besides, a 75-year old Russian spy? Are they getting that desperate?
All of the fiber cables I've ever seen had either plastic or fiberglass rigid members, not a conductive material like copper. Even if they did use metal, it would more likely be steel or aluminum, not something as expensive as copper.
may face charges.
------------
Seriously ?
This got to be a joke.
------------
Seriously ?
This got to be a joke.
Digging without a permit on public land? Its illegal anywhere including the US
Digging without a permit on public land? Its illegal anywhere including the US
I think he's disbelieving of the word "may". I would have thought it'd be "certainly".
Can you imagine losing your Internet connection and finding out this was the reason why.
This actually happened on 28 March (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12985082).
What is Armenia?
It's the first Christian country on this planet.
My thoughts were along with many, especially why such a cable was so easy to access.
What nobody asked was this: How is it a 75 yo woman could use a 'shovel' to cut a cable?
I know shovels have sharp edges, but it still takes a heavy hand to raise the shovel high enough to break the cable. Fiber cables are as thick as telephone cable, but still.
And as it was said my a few, suppose it just happend to be an electrical line?
Fry granny fry.
lmao, that is awesome.
Reminds me of my mum putting a shovel through our virgin media cable which was about 3" under the surface.
My neighbour also managed to hack her gas supply as that was less than 2" under the surface.
That's ****ing terrifying
lol funny story
Having been there last year for business, it is not hard to believe that story!
However it seems unlikely that almost the entire nation lost connectivity. Most homes are getting 3G wireless routers nowadays (it's much cheaper to deploy wireless vs lay out cable in a mountainous area) and the main connection goes through south of Armenia into Iran etc..It is hard to believe all residents were w/o internet access.
So there is a reason an entire company we work with had no internet connectivity issues in the past 30 days in the region...
Heard about this earlier. Figured it was a real hack. not that sort of slice.
that'll be an expensive replacement
Reminds me of the South Park episode with senior citizens driving crazy