Rebels hacked, rewired Libya's cell network for their own use

A compelling story from Wall Street Journal reporters Margaret Coker and Charles Levinson details how Libyan rebels - with help from individuals and governments supportive of their cause and without help from some equipment suppliers - rewired a portion of Libya's cellular-communications network to allow the rebels to communicate with each other.

The WSJ article states, "engineers hived off part of the Libyan cellphone network ... and rewired it to run independently of the regime's control." The article explains that the country's telcommunications infrastructure is built in a star topology, the center of which is Tripoli, allowing Colonel Moammar Gadhafi's government to control phone and Internet access. Libyan rebels had been without telecommunications access of any kind and were resorting to flag-waving during battles with government forces, the article says, before help from outside of Libya aided them.

The story details the efforts of Libyan-born, American-raised telecom executive Ousama Abushagur, who currently resides in Abu Dhabi. It reads a little like a work of international-espionage fiction, describing telecom-equipment provide Huawei's contract with the nation of Libya and refusal to supply equipment to the rebels as well as the roles of neighboring countries and their telecommunications companies in the hacking effort.

The story states that once they obtained the needed equipment and were on the ground - or perhaps more appropriately on the towers - in Libya, the system-installation crew "fused the new equipment into the existing cellphone network, creating an independent data and routing system free from Tripoli's command."

You can read the entire Wall Street Journal story by Coker and Levison here.

Every day is Labor Day for technology professionals

Today, September 6, is Labor Day in the United States, a holiday observance whose beginnings harken back to days of bitter and sometimes even deadly disputes between employers and employees. Things have changed quite a bit in the 128 years since the first observance of Labor Day here in the U.S. Right?

Just in time for the holiday this year, PC World recently reported on the most dangerous jobs in technology. The article lists seven such occupations. Among them are fixing undersea cables, which the PC World article reminds us is dangerous because "in a worst-case scenario a cable operating with 10,000 volts could become energized. And looking straight into the lasers of a sliced cable can burn out your retinas in a matter of seconds."

Then there's the nearly 11,000 people who make a living installing and fixing communications towers. "In 2006, 18 of them died on the job," PC World says. "The head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 2008 called cell-phone-tower climbing the most dangerous work in America."

Lest we forget, as the U.S. ends its official combat operation in Iraq, about the brave individuals who build network infrastructure within war zones. In what might be the article's most sobering passage, we're informed: "It's unclear exactly how many people doing IT-related work have lost their lives among the 4734 Coalition military deaths in Iraq since 2003, and the 2061 dead in Operation Enduring Freedom since 2001 so far, as counted on the independent iCasualties Website.

"According to a count conducted in September 2009, at least three telecommunications engineers are among the 533 foreign private contractors who have died in Iraq since the beginning of the conflict there. Two telecom engineers are among the 146 private foreign contractors who have perished in Afghanistan."

As I enjoy a day of rest and relaxation with my family this Labor Day, I'm immensely grateful to those who put their safety on the line so that citizens of the world can be united - at least in terms of their ability to communicate.