Expand / Collapse search
☰

Cable line blasted by Oakland gunfire exposes infrastructure vulnerabilities

By
Updated  January 31, 2022 9:13pm PST
Technology
KTVU FOX 2

Cable lines damaged in Oakland shooting expose vulnerabilites

A cable line damaged by gunfire in Oakland disrupted service to thousands of Comcast customers. But it also revealed that such infrastructure is vulnerable for many reasons.

For thousands of Oakland families, Sunday was a nail-biter long before the 49ers playoff game, due to a massive cable failure that lasted most of the day. 

So, it's important to know what's vulnerable and what's now on your cable system. There's big difference between isolated damage to a cable system and trying to bring down the whole thing.

The TV cables, pierced by multiple bullets in early Sunday morning cut off tens of thousands of customers. Crews worked most of the day, ultimately angering some 20,000 customers who missed part of the 49ers game or had to go elsewhere to see it. 

"Probably time to get YouTube TV like I have, so that's not an issue. So, yeah, that's what I do: streaming services and stuff like that," said Andrew Chalmers of Alameda. 

"That could be something that crosses other peoples' minds that this is an easy way to just mess up a lot of people lives for a short period of time," said Laura O'Hare.

Howard Kidorf is managing partner of Pioneer Communications a worldwide firm serving land and undersea cable companies. "These activities have been happening for many decades and for the most part, their impact has been very small," said Kidorf. 

fLASHBACK: PG&E blames dust and rain combo for power outage

Nonetheless, cable systems are one of the most vulnerable and easiest of the critical systems to attack on the local level. 

"The parts that supply service to individual businesses are out there in the streets and are somewhat vulnerable," said Kidorf.

The cables hang out in the open on utility poles almost everywhere and the many, widespread underground vaults are clearly marked. 

Fact is, there are all kinds of infrastructure that are out in the open, and they are vulnerable to damage. One example are electrical lines. Or how about this: cell towers. They're damaged from time to time, sometimes deliberately and sometimes by accident. 

By category, the most common causes of cable damage are animals, vehicles knocking over utility poles, vandalism and equipment theft, followed by weather and acts of God such as earthquakes. 

"Chances are if it's equipment that's in my neighborhood, it's gonna have a very small impact in terms of the number of households and businesses affected," said Kidorf.

But, the main data centers, distribution facilities and inter-city connections are heavily guarded from physical assaults and cyberattacks to prevent truly massive outages.