ATT services down due to bombing in Nashville • Hacker News Board

Re: ATT services down due to bombing in Nashville

#421

Post by daniellarusso » Sat, Dec 26, 2020, 2:09 PM UTC

ALittleLight wrote: post #211

sillysaurusx wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess. I'm just sad I lived to see a second legit terrorist attack on American soil. I remember being in 8th grade when sept11 happened.

I think there have been several attacks of this magnitude or worse since September 11. e.g. The Boston Marathon bombing or the anthrax attacks, or Christopher Dorner (though maybe that's less terrorist and more revenge). There have been lots. I think, so long as this wasn't a test run for a coordinated attack on the telecoms, then this is not a very bad terrorist attack.

Also, from the 9/11 and anthrax era, the DC area sniper shootings.

Re: ATT services down due to bombing in Nashville

#422

Post by newman8r » Sat, Dec 26, 2020, 2:10 PM UTC

iJohnDoe wrote: post #176

elmo2you wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I'm only speculating, it could be quite possible that whoever may have wished to damage or destroy the AT&T building, seriously underestimated what these kind of buildings can take (essentially being disguised bunkers). This certainly wasn't a small explosion, from the looks of it. But taking out a bunker .. unless you have access to weapons specially build for that purpose, good luck. That AT&T still went down…

Calling it a bunker might be overstating it. Maybe some are like bunkers or some have been reinforced. It’s hard to say. Sometimes these central offices are put in really old buildings. Sometimes they are even put in regular homes in a neighborhood. It’s simply based on where they need the connections/circuits and have access to electricity, etc.

To anyone interested, see "Anaheim 17"

http://www.thecentraloffice.com/calif/OC1/OCP.htm

Re: ATT services down due to bombing in Nashville

#423

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Dec 26, 2020, 2:11 PM UTC

vageli wrote: post #123

bigbubba wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. There are certainly people who believe both or either of those were terrorism.

Terrorism is the use of violence to promote an ideology. Full stop. Nothing precludes a terrorist act from helping people. Even Pablo Escobar set up schools and other institutions in his neighborhood.

[deleted]

Re: ATT services down due to bombing in Nashville

#424

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet » Sat, Dec 26, 2020, 2:13 PM UTC

ideophobia wrote: post #235

pseudo0 wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anything, this attack reminded me of the Weather Underground bombings in the 70s, which were often prefaced by evacuation warnings and targeted infrastructure rather than people. If I had to take a guess though, I'd go with a genuinely mentally ill person attempting to take out the 5G "mind control rays" or whatever, particularly given the potential presence of human remains found at the scene. I read that story y…

Yea when I first saw the coverage my immediate assumption was a crazy anti-5g person. But reading accounts of the events leading up to the explosion made it sound too well executed for that in my mind. Obviously anyone who does this, regardless of motive, is mentally ill in some capacity.

> Obviously anyone who does this, regardless of motive, is mentally ill in some capacity.

I'm not sure why you think that is obvious. Without knowing the motive we have no means of assessing the decision making process of the attacker(s).

Re: ATT services down due to bombing in Nashville

#425

Post by vsareto » Sat, Dec 26, 2020, 2:15 PM UTC

supernova87a wrote: post #77

mintplant wrote: post #20

Reportedly, there was a visible countdown timer on the vehicle that exploded, and an audible warning played for 15-20 minutes prior to the blast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nygTJeu9fU

That voice announcing evacuation sounds very professional, not like a computer synthesized voice... I wonder if they will try to trace that.

Seems to be Microsoft Anna:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B--BNdnuvA

Re: ATT services down due to bombing in Nashville

#426

Post by 0xbadcafebee » Sat, Dec 26, 2020, 2:29 PM UTC

This HN title is dangerously editorializing. The story says it was an explosion, not a bombing, but that the police are suspecting it was intentionally caused.

When "media" (yes HN you are media too) starts to drift the narrative, people latch onto it and they stop looking for evidence-based facts, and instead start looking for anything that supports their preferred narrative. You'd think 4 years of Trump and decades of Fox News would've been a lesson.

Re: ATT services down due to bombing in Nashville

#427

Post by xyst » Sat, Dec 26, 2020, 2:32 PM UTC

Telcos infrastructure is so broken. Why does an outage in Tennessee somehow affect areas in California and Texas (depicted in that outage map by the yellow areas)? ATT and other big telcos need to be broken up, and municipal run ISPs need to become the norm.

These outages should be local to the city and not ripple across the nation.

Re: ATT services down due to bombing in Nashville

#428

Post by rblatz » Sat, Dec 26, 2020, 2:43 PM UTC

Throwaway1771 wrote: post #316

joseph_grobbles wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same difficulty of anonymity arises with the RV itself, a very ostentatious vehicle that not only can be traced with ease, it can be tracked retroactively on virtually every street, every highway, etc. Regardless, for all we know the person isn't concerned with being caught (and may currently be deceased given that possible human remains have been found).

> it can be tracked retroactively on virtually every street, every highway, etc. Not virtually. Actually. NSA et al can do - will they publicly tip that hand for this?

No need to publicly tip your hand. Just follow that trail of evidence, then use parallel construction to produce a different trail that you reveal publicly.

Re: ATT services down due to bombing in Nashville

#429

Post by dkn775 » Sat, Dec 26, 2020, 3:20 PM UTC

gfd213 wrote: post #350

They Bombed a major network switching and server hub for att AT&T snags FBI business from Verizon with $92M FirstNet contract just days ago FirstNet system is a unified communication platform to connect all levels of government and collect information during times of crisis. Was created in 2012 after the Boston bombing. Government agencies all are going to be linked through this system top to bottom. This is basicall…

I wouldn’t be sure about this. I have firstnet on a work phone (EMT) and it’s rarely any better than my regular ATT device. While it does have low latency (sometimes 1ms) speed is not any different. I’m actually kind of mad because my department had Verizon before like your link, and it was way faster and worked in more places.

Re: ATT services down due to bombing in Nashville

#430

Post by generalizations » Sat, Dec 26, 2020, 3:21 PM UTC

harperlee wrote: post #393

rorykoehler wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The IRA nearly always sent warnings in the 90s. Usually by calling a radio station with a code word.

Same with ETA in Spain. > It's less common (although not entirely unheard of) if the bombing is a terrorist attack. But if, as you suggest, that target is infrastructure A terrorist attack’s first objective is to cause terror, not to kill people. Thus warning in advance is also effective to instill terror. And separating terrorism from bombing infrastructure is a weird dichotomy...

> terrorist attack’s first objective is to cause terror

In the case of this bombing, then, I think calling the cuprits "terrorists" would be incorrect since they were attempting to take down infrastructure.