French fiber optic cables cut in latest Olympics sabotage | Hacker News Reader

French fiber optic cables cut in latest Olympics sabotage

axios.com

27 pointsAlphaWeaver18 comments

Many will be quick to place the blame on Russia or Iran, but in the absence of evidence try not to fall for propaganda. Wait for the fog-of-war to clear; eventually evidence will come out.

From what I understood from following the general news reporting on this, France assumes that this was done by left-wing radicals.

While I have no problem blaming Russia or Iran, fiber optic cuts are notorious.

There's an old joke about a sysadmin who used to hike and why he kept optic fibre in his backpack: "If I ever get lost, I'll just bury that cable in the ground. In an hour a backhoe will come along to dig it up."

This isn’t 1 cable got cut, it’s multiple cables 100s of miles apart during the same night.

Very organized. Like by a larger group. Or state organized it. And contrary to popular beliefs a ton of anarchists/lefty groups think the nerves of global society sacrosanct. Resulting in putin hireing basically mercs.

>eventually evidence will come out.

What's the latest on the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage?

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/qa-what-is-known-about-...

https://youtu.be/xWUuhNd37WI?si=FdNzrkCLEKT54_Nh

Russians did it. With the help of the CIA. /s

I doubt it the aim of disrupting French Olympics would be the act of a state. It's more likely local French anarchists who are just looking to cause some disruption in any way they can.

Unlike something like Nord Stream, what's the end goal of disrupting the media distribution of Olympic events? Also, cutting a fiber optic cable doesn't take significant resources. A shovel (maybe a jack hammer), a side-angle grinder, and knowledge of where the cables run.

> what's the end goal of disrupting the media distribution of Olympic events?

Retaliation for being banned from participating?

I have no more evidence than anyone else on HN, but there’s pretty clear motive for Russia to do something like this. A big enough deal to remind the west they can strike in the heart of Europe, but a benign enough act that it wouldn’t call for an escalation in Ukraine.

Given that the previous act of sabotage was a far-left wing activist, it's highly likely this was the same.

Russia's retaliation for Russian athletes (competing under a Russian flag) being banned is to domestically censor the Olympics and promote alternative competitions (the World Friendship Games and BRICS Games).

> Unlike something like Nord Stream, what's the end goal of disrupting the media distribution of Olympic events?

Well, taking into account the quality of the transmission during opening ceremony, i think it is an insider job or just normal cost cutting.

(31+20 points, yesterday) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41098963 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41101755

[dupe] Yesterday's news

Some more discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41101755

If russia did it this thread will fill with noise&fogbots.

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