Silicon Valley's Internet arteries disrupted

Vandals cut fiber-optic lines last week at two locations near Silicon Valley, forcing two IBM facilities to shut down and impacting an
organization that manages Internet domain names, Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. The cuts also disrupted wired and wireless services for thousands of telecom users in the area, reports ComputerWorld.com.

Police said those responsible had to remove manhole covers and use cutting tools to sever the thick cables. The severed lines caused the IBM Silicon Valley Lab, a research center for cloud computing, to shut down. It also forced an IBM manufacturing lab near the site of the cut to close. Despite these disruptions, business continued as usual at other large tech giants in Silicon Valley, including Google, Yahoo and Cisco Systems.

This is a warning to businesses everywhere that even a little mischief can have a big impact, when it comes to high-tech services.

For more about the impact of these cut lines:
- check out this ComputerWorld.com article [1]

Related Articles:
Tough times in Silicon Valley [2]
Breakthrough could herald terabit Ethernet over fiber optics [3]
Will the Internet crash? [2]