Asian Internet outages continue

If you remember last week's Internet outage that wiped out connectivity in large parts of the Middle East and Asia, you might have found yourself wondering exactly how an undersea data cable gets cut. Turns out, investigators are wondering the same thing. Though it was initially believed that the first two severed cables--the cause of last week's outage--were cut by ships dragging their anchors in the Mediterranean Sea, it now appears that something else might be afoot. According to Egyptian officials, surveillance cameras recorded no ships in the affected area during the 24-hour period in question. What's more, a third cable, off of the coast of Dubai and a fourth cable, linking Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, have since been severed, creating more outages and raising further questions. For the time being, traffic is being rerouted, in an attempt to keep networks online until the cables can be repaired. If you've got offshore operations in India or the Middle East and you don't have a contingency plan for dealing with outages, consider this a wake-up call.

For more on the outages:
- see this Khaleej Times article