A 75-year-old Georgian woman who says she has never even heard of the Internet is facing a possible prison sentence for single-handedly cutting off the web to an entire country.
Hayastan Shakarian was digging for copper and she allegedly hacked through the fibre optic cable that runs through Georgia to Armenia. She was arrested for cutting of Armenia’s Internet which plunged 90% of Internet users into online darkness for nearly 12 hours. 12 hours may not seem like the longest time without Internet for some, but the article on BBC said that research showed only 1% of companies worldwide could function adequately without the Internet and more than a quarter (27%) couldn’t function at all without it. One in five said a week without being online would be the death of their company.
Some companies offer protection to help their customers stay connected. For example, a company called OptaSense uses advanced sonar techniques and can listen to potential threats of a break in service by converting the fibre optic cable carrying the Internet signal into an acoustic microphone.
I often have Internet connection problems, like I’m sure many people do depending on their carrier, but I never thought of how risky it is for people who may be working near utility pipes to cut off the main source for Internet connection…I especially wouldn’t think a 75-year-old woman digging for copper could cut off an entire country’s Internet. The ARTICLE on BBC NEWS says “the episode is a timely reminder that all it takes in our hi-tech world to shut down thousands of companies for a day is a determined old lady with a spade.”
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