72 years-old women *hacks* most of the Internet in Georgia, but no clue of what's the Internet!

While we might be tempted to laugh at this one, this is also quite sad, since this good old lady fell in the hands of Georgia's terrible judicial system for doing something she obviously couldn't even understand!

Still she's giving a whole new, down-to-earth, definition of Internet hacking... literally.



From the Telegr aph

7:00AM BST 11 Apr 2011

In a case that has attracted worldwide interest, pensioner Hayastan Shakarian is accused of forcing thousands of people in both countries offline for hours after hacking into a fibre-optic cable while digging for scrap metal.

But Shakarian, a Georgian of Armenian origin, told AFP that she was just a "poor old woman" who was not capable of committing such a crime.

"I did not cut this cable. Physically, I could not do it," she said, repeatedly bursting into tears as she spoke.

Ms Shakarian, who lives in the poverty-stricken Georgian village of Armazi, around 10 miles from the capital Tbilisi, said that she had only been collecting firewood.

"I have no idea what the internet is," she added.

The pensioner has been charged with damaging property and could face up to three years in prison if convicted.

"My mother is innocent. She is crying all the time. She is so scared," said her son, Sergo Shakarian.

The Georgian interior ministry said that despite her claims to innocence, Ms Shakarian had already confessed to cutting the fibre-optic cable.

The company that owns the fibre-optic cable, Georgian Railway Telecom, said that the damage was serious, causing 90 per cent of private and corporate internet users in neighbouring Armenia to lose access for nearly 12 hours while also hitting Georgian internet service providers.

But although Georgian Railway Telecom insists that the 380-mile cable has "robust protection", this was not the first time that it has been damaged.

Many Georgians' internet connections were also briefly cut off in 2009 by another scavenger who hacked into the cable while hunting for scrap metal to sell.

what the hell is going on in this world..

This is why we need super hero's, to sort this mess out.

Originally posted by Echtelion
While we might be tempted to laugh at this one, this is also quite sad, since this good old lady fell in the hands of Georgia's terrible judicial system for doing something she obviously couldn't even understand!

I think she understands perfectly that she cut something she wasn't supposed to cut, even though she may not understand exactly what it was for, but even if it had been a telephone line, surely she understands what that is and that cutting it was bad.

They said she admitted to cutting it but don't give any details, though that's a mean looking saw in her hands. I wonder if that's what she cut it with?

Poor woman. Seems like an honest mistake, but wouldn't there have been signs posted around that indicated the cable? In Australia we have signs that say "Dial before you dig" with a phone number on it.

I skimmed over the article looking for the word "Signs" I didn't see it. So it seems this is an honest mistake and the cable owners fault for not having signs nearby.

"digging for scrap metal" ???

Just how deep was she digging?
Shouldn't those cables be at least 2 or 3 feet down into the ground?
Or encased in something that isn't easily broken?

Eh, I posted a comment on the wrong thread,
on this note, It is quite funny she managed to do that!

Originally posted by snowspirit
"digging for scrap metal" ???

Just how deep was she digging?
Shouldn't those cables be at least 2 or 3 feet down into the ground?
Or encased in something that isn't easily broken?

I work for a teclo in the UK and yes, they should be well buried in normal circumstances, although we do overhead deploy onto the National Grid as well. If we have to ground deploy, ie, leave the cable on or near the surface for a planned outage or what have you, then it should be armoured.

But, this is Georgia. The fact that this impacted so many people speaks volumes about their planning in the first place. You shouldn't have such a huge chunk of your nations comms going over a single cable.

Originally posted by Arbitrageur

Originally posted by Echtelion
While we might be tempted to laugh at this one, this is also quite sad, since this good old lady fell in the hands of Georgia's terrible judicial system for doing something she obviously couldn't even understand!

I think she understands perfectly that she cut something she wasn't supposed to cut, even though she may not understand exactly what it was for, but even if it had been a telephone line, surely she understands what that is and that cutting it was bad.

They said she admitted to cutting it but don't give any details, though that's a mean looking saw in her hands. I wonder if that's what she cut it with?

"Mean-looking saw"? lol

Just a very average saw that you find in a cheap hardware store. But I suppose since she got arrested it al takes a very *evil* side, eh? Being spooked by the State is a very bad thing.

Originally posted by stumason

Originally posted by snowspirit
"digging for scrap metal" ???

Just how deep was she digging?
Shouldn't those cables be at least 2 or 3 feet down into the ground?
Or encased in something that isn't easily broken?

I work for a teclo in the UK and yes, they should be well buried in normal circumstances, although we do overhead deploy onto the National Grid as well. If we have to ground deploy, ie, leave the cable on or near the surface for a planned outage or what have you, then it should be armoured.

But, this is Georgia. The fact that this impacted so many people speaks volumes about their planning in the first place. You shouldn't have such a huge chunk of your nations comms going over a single cable.

That's a somewhat standard scenario for post-Soviet countries, especially those with a little crappy despot as "NATO Governor"... the old traditional society meets force-fed industrial technological development, without any sophisticated integration process.

Just violent civilization shock... so this is the kind of weirdness you get from it.

Originally posted by stumason

Originally posted by snowspirit
"digging for scrap metal" ???

Just how deep was she digging?
Shouldn't those cables be at least 2 or 3 feet down into the ground?
Or encased in something that isn't easily broken?

I work for a teclo in the UK and yes, they should be well buried in normal circumstances, although we do overhead deploy onto the National Grid as well. If we have to ground deploy, ie, leave the cable on or near the surface for a planned outage or what have you, then it should be armoured.

But, this is Georgia. The fact that this impacted so many people speaks volumes about their planning in the first place. You shouldn't have such a huge chunk of your nations comms going over a single cable.

Kinda like 2 tin cans and a string strung between the 2 countries.. Im shocked clipping one cable knocked out that much of an area!

Originally posted by minto
what the hell is going on in this world..
.

It's easier to bust grandmothers than godfathers.
It's easier to arrest teenagers than terrorists.
It's easier to lock up a nonviolent offender than a pscyho.

It's all about making the numbers, making the quotas, and having a good record as a law enforcement agent. That and keeping the prison-industrial complex humming...

make me honestly wonder what "scrap metal" she was after. it is apparently quite common for people around the world, especially in "poorer" nation to collect such "scrap" as electrical and phone wiring that is still in service. seeing that saw she has it seems likely this may be the case here. wonder what she thought when she cut into it and found no metal.heck even in Toronto a few years back people were stealing manhole covers off the street for "scrap".

Old News

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Echtelion


The cable people should have put signs up.

It's not her fault just for digging in a place that happened to have cables running through it. Anyone could have done that.

reply to post by generik


Poorer countries? Happens in the UK too.. Oh, hmm...I see...

But yeah, the amount of outages that we have that are caused by people digging up our fibres looking for copper is unreal. They never learn either, which is odd as it is bloody obvious the difference between a copper cable and a fibre optic.

reply to post by stumason


It happens everywhere, even here in Oz and the culprits aren't necessarily poor but simply opportunists. They even cut down live power lines and are particularly fond of underground power cable which is freshly laid prior to completion of jointing and energizing but occasionally they get it wrong and apply their hacksawing skills to live 11kV or higher voltage cable which has been found to permanently cure them of their pilfering ways.

A metre or 2 of 300mm^2 Cu 3 phase UG cable raises quite a few dollars at the scrap merchants who are requested to keep their eye out for likely stolen conductors but most suffer from selective blindness in that regard

Even had one here who climbed a pole and attempted to cut down a span of live 22kV conductor (obviously didn't succeed in that endeavour) but, after regaining his health, was caught pinching overhead telephone cables a little while later (some are slow learners). We regularly get substations and switchyards broken into with earthing copper busbars being the target.

it happens all the time in my area on a jobsite i had worked earlier in day some idiots using an excavator chomped though a fiber optic trunk line knocking out phone and internet for 12 hours back in 99. when they realized they cut this 10 foot deep line encased in terracotta pipe they buried it loaded up there equipment and left latter that afternoon so phone company reps came to my other jobsite with law wanting to know why we did not report cutting line . we told him we didn't know what he was talking about and he said some one saw us digging with excavator at job site i pulled out shovel and said this is only excavator i was using and that was only used to install silt fence at that location around catch basins. next day rhey found out real culprits they had done 5000000 dollars worth of damage to line and millions of dollars of lost sales as no bank cards could be used for them 12 hours in eastern nc and virginia and sc

Even had one here who climbed a pole and attempted to cut down a span of live 22kV conductor

Wow..that's a really smart way to make some money...

/SARCASM