Satellite catches ships that broke the internet

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 14 Apr 2008 at 09:04

Two ships suspected of cutting undersea internet cables have been impounded by authorities in Dubai.

The cuts happened in late January and early February, when two undersea internet cables running to the middle east were broken in quick succession.

At one point up to 70% of bandwidth to the area was lost, causing a dramatic slowdown of internet access which lasted for two weeks.

The MV Hounslow and MT Ann have both been detained by the Dubai Port Trust, although reports from authorities suggest that one of the ships has now been released after paying "huge" damages.

The ships were caught after the owner of the affected cables, Reliance Globalcom, tracked down satellite images from the time of the damage to check for suspects. These were then passed on to authorities.

Conspiracy theories abounded on the internet in the weeks following the incidents, with bloggers blaming the cuts on everything from various governments, terrorist groups and sea-monsters.