Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: shadowrn@*********.com (shadowrn@*********.com)
Subject: Tapping fibre-optic lines (was Re: Viability/Use of Foreign L
Date: Mon Jun 24 11:10:01 2002
Quoth Thorger Sünert:

> > <MODE_ENGAGE: nitpick>
> > Actually, according to SR near-canon (the novel 'Shadowplay'),
> >>fibre-optic
> > lines *can* be tapped, and the traffic even monitored and recorded
> >>from a
> > distance, along the same lines as how someone with a sensitive->>enough
> > magnetic-anomaly-detector can read the electrical impulses >>travelling
>along
> > RL copper wires. Don't ask me how they does it in SR, they jes' >>does
>it -
> > and have been since at least mid-2054, apparently. Don't'cha just
> >>love
>the
> > SOTA curve?
>
Fibre-optic lines are tapped by bending the line over a prism and reading
the spillover from the cable. In some cases this can be done without
stripping back the cladding. In all cases the tap can be located using a
TDM( Time Division Multiplexer). If you place your splice within a few
meters of a coupler it will be harder to detect. All this can be done today
and without interupting the service of the client. I would be happy to
answer most technical questions regarding fibre-optics since this is what I
do for work...

I am not aware of any device which will tap a fibre remotely yet...

Coyote
Message no. 2
From: shadowrn@*********.com (shadowrn@*********.com)
Subject: Tapping fibre-optic lines (was Re: Viability/Use of Foreign L
Date: Tue Jun 25 07:50:01 2002
>A friend of mine was trying to get me to believe that a fiber-optic cable
>could be tapped by using something called a vampire clip or something like
>that. Pure fiction or pure BS?
>
>Thanks!
>
>Zebulin

Vampire clips are used on copper cables to tap lines. They have pins that
pierce the cladding on cables and make contact with the conductor. They are
commonly used by telephone technicians to test phone lines without
interupting service.

Coyote

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Tapping fibre-optic lines (was Re: Viability/Use of Foreign L, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.