Johannes Ullrich over at SANS, reminded me of an increasing threat to the telecommunications and power infrastructure: copper and fiber theft. Odd as it seems, we have arrived at a point where people are robbing both construction sites and critical infrastructure of copper in order make a few bucks. Over the past few months several people have been hurt or killed while trying to harvest copper wire from live electrical lines. There is, of course, some kind of sad darwinian justice to these injuries, but the overall success of these thieves seems to be quite high.
Recent copper thefts have caused major phone, Internet, and video outages for Time Warner, AT&T, Verizion, and other carriers. It has gotten so bad, that at the beginning of this month AT&T and Time Warner have started offering rewards for information regarding the thefts, and Pennsylvania and other states are working to pass new metallic theft laws.
Copper prices have been at their highest levels for the past couple of years and scrap copper has been hanging around $3.40/lbs. The high prices are primarily due to the construction boom in the US, and infrastructure modernization in China and throughout Asia. Yes, this is the global trading village where one can pillage copper phone lines from one country, re-mold it to new wire, and sell it to another.
There is something both frightening and sad about people ripping apart their own infrastructure for a few dollars a pound. This problem seems much more prevalent then one would imagine and I wonder if it is a sign of the times, or simple a new avenue of common thievery.
