Inside the Beach House Connecting the World’s Internet
The fragility of the internet always amazes me. One accident or attack and an entire part of the world virtually goes offline.
What is inside the undersea cables that carry the internet around the world?
This blows my mind. I've always known that undersea cables carry the internet across the globe, but just like Nat and Lo mention here in this video, I've always thought these cables were thick tree trunk-like lines. Nope. They're mostly thin, probably as thick as my arm in most of the long stretches (it's thicker when it comes closer to shore).
What an NSA-tapped undersea internet cable looks like in real life
This video kind of got really serious real quickly. And that's fine, I guess. But I'm posting it here mainly because for once I finally get to see an NSA-tapped undersea internet cable is, thanks in large part to activist Trevor Paglen. This cable is a lot thinner than I thought it would be. I was expecting something in the deep, deep dark-blue depths of the ocean, but instead this internet cable doesn't seem that deep down (given how much light there is) and it's just...flopping around in the water -- ready for anybody to just come and rip it to shreds. So weird how insecure this cable seems to be. I guess the hard part is finding it.