Vandals cut fiber optic cables, cause widespread internet outage

ALAMO, Calif. (KTVU) - An FBI investigation into vandalism on fiber-optic cables is expanding after another incident that knocked out internet and TV service in parts of Northern California, Oregon and Washington.

The most recent happened in Livermore on Tuesday, but investigators say vandals have been cutting cables all over the East Bay for the last two years.

Workers at a software development company in Rocklin say they were impacted by the Livermore incident Tuesday.

On its website the internet provider, Wave Broadband, wrote that the outage affected customers in Sacramento and Rocklin. They went on to say he outage was caused by a deliberate act of someone cutting three major fiber optic cables belonging to two companies it had contracts with.

FBI officials say fiber optic cables have been intentionally cut not just in Livermore but also Fremont, Walnut Creek, Berkeley and San Jose – all within the last year. FBI teams are working with local police agencies and asking the community for help finding those responsible.