Fifth cable cut in Mid-East (Was Re: [LINK] Fourth cable cut in Mideast

[Russell Ashdown]

Darrell Burkey wrote:
> As an aside. How does one sniff transmissions going over fibre? I
> thought that was one of the advantages of fibre in that it is more
> secure. Is this very cool technology or are you saying they splice in to
> it? 
It is possible to "sniff" transmissions on any optical fibre by:
1) Scraping away the outer sheath;
2) Merely bend the fibre around a slight radius;
3) Pick-up the scattered light and decode.

One must be careful not to bend too much, if too much bend is applied, 
too much scatter occurs and the light loss can be detected.

However, undersea fibre cables are populated by signal amplifiers and I 
doubt they would be looking for insignificant light loss.