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Hacking partially blamed for Internet disruption -- JTGAMMAN, Dec 04, 2008 (Jordan Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- There have been several hacking attempts recently that attacked the Internet and the websites of some important companies and institutions in the Kingdom which led to some disruption lately, according to the Jordan Telecom Group (JTG). "JTG's highly skilled technical teams played an important role in countering these hacking attempts, which have somewhat affected the performance of the Internet service," Sami Smeirat, JTG's VP and CEO of the Enterprise Business Unit, told reporters Wednesday. Smeirat, who noted the number of breaches and hacking is increasing globally, said: "There is a need for endorsing legislation at the world level because it is possible to stop hackers and trace them if there were such laws." Reviewing reasons that led to disruption in connecting to the World Wide Web, JTG Chief Information Technology and Networks Officer Amer Sunna said 20-25 per cent of problems to connect to the service are blamed on faulty PCs or subscribers who place the router of the modem incorrectly. He added that JTG has to deal with 20-30 per cent of the causes of service disruption, including accidents and thefts that cause damage to copper cables network. This year, 515 thefts and 873 cable cuts by construction contractors were reported, Sunna told reporters. Sunna noted that vandalism causes about 20 per cent of the faults, adding that the number of incidents faced by the fibre optic network during this year to date was 208. The infrastructure of the network contains diverse routes to switch traffic in case one of the routes goes faulty. Sunna added that these routes faced 36 external incidents (outside the Kingdom's borders) since the beginning of this year until the end of last month, resulting in slower Internet speed for limited periods. Regarding the international gateways that JTG's Internet network is connected to, Sunna said the group's network is linked to the International Internet Network through three different international routes to guarantee service continuity in case a glitch hits one route, adding that the working capacities until the end of last month was about 4G distributed among these three international routes. In this regard, JTG CEO Mickael Ghossein announced that the working capacities will be increased by 50 per cent up to 6.5G before the end of the year or during the first week of 2009. Some blamed the company for its failure to explain the problem to the public, regardless of its lack of responsibility for the faults. Mahmoud Al Haj, a computer instructor, said he called the call centre several times when he faced connection failure, but the lines were busy and he was kept on hold for a long time before he gave up trying. Aware of the problem, Wassila Zitoune, Orange Home vice president, said that the call centre received a "huge" number of phone calls lately. "Last week, the number of daily phone calls ranged between 20,000-25,000," she told reporters, adding that the number of received calls has doubled in the second half of the year, compared to the first six months. She said the group is working on controlling the influx of calls to its call centre by imposing a tariff on fixed-line and Internet subscribers when phoning the call centre to improve the level of service. She said the group, whose market share is about 55 per cent, is taking additional measures to increase the number of call centre staff to ensure smoother service. To see more of the Jordan Times or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jordantimes.com/. Copyright (c) 2008, Jordan Times, Amman Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |