THE SPADE HACKER

Back in 2011, an elderly Georgian woman managed to disconnect Armenia’s internet for five hours. Dubbed the ‘spade hacker’ by local media, the 75 year old was out scavenging for copper to sell as scrap. In the former Soviet Union, pulling up unused copper cables for scrap is a well-known means of making money. Some entrepreneurs even use tractors to unearth older copper cables. But, instead of striking copper, the spadehacking granny managed to cut through a $76 million fibre-optic cable, and because Georgia provides 90 per cent of Armenia’s internet, some 3.2 million people lost their online access that day.