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Communications Network United States Wireless Networking

Cell-Tower Attacks By Idiots Who Claim 5G Spreads COVID-19 Reportedly Hit US (arstechnica.com) 240

Posted by BeauHD from the misinformation-campaigns dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Department of Homeland Security is reportedly issuing alerts to wireless telecom providers and law enforcement agencies about potential attacks on cell towers and telecommunications workers by 5G/coronavirus conspiracy theorists. The DHS warned that there have already been "arson and physical attacks against cell towers in several U.S. states." The preposterous claim that 5G can spread the coronavirus, either by suppressing the immune system or by directly transmitting the virus over radio waves, led to dozens of tower burnings in the UK and mainland Europe. Now, the DHS "is preparing to advise the U.S. telecom industry on steps it can take to prevent attacks on 5G cell towers following a rash of incidents in Western Europe fueled by the false claim that the technology spreads the pathogen causing COVID-19," The Washington Post reported last week.

The DHS alert will include "advice on ways to reduce the risk of attack, including installing appropriate sensing and barriers, cyber-intrusion detection systems, closed-circuit television and monitoring drone activity near towers," the Post article said. A telecom-industry official said that carriers in the U.S. "have seen sporadic attacks on their cell towers that were apparently prompted by COVID-19 disinformation" over the past few weeks, the Post wrote. In addition to warning telecoms, DHS reportedly issued an intelligence report on the topic "to senior federal officials and law enforcement agencies around the country," ABC News reported Saturday. DHS also teamed with the FBI and National Counterterrorism Center to issue a joint intelligence bulletin to federal officials and law enforcement agencies, the ABC News report said.
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Cell-Tower Attacks By Idiots Who Claim 5G Spreads COVID-19 Reportedly Hit US More

Cell-Tower Attacks By Idiots Who Claim 5G Spreads COVID-19 Reportedly Hit US

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  • I can't even begin to imagine (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Monday May 18, 2020 @05:44PM (#60075264)
    How anyone in their right mind could associate radio waves with the transmission of a virus. Computer viruses, yes, human viruses, no. I feel like man-kind is regressing to the days of the Troglodytes. This can't be real, right?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      The average IQ is less than 100.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ukoda ( 537183 )
        Boy it sure feels that way when you hear about this stuff. By definition the average IQ is 100 but apparently it is rising, there is an interesting Wikipedia article about it, the Flynn effect. It does seem at odds with what you see online and I am sure reading enough Facebook post will lower anyone's IQ.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

          The scale is adjusted periodically to make the average 100. But, as you noted, the IQ has been going up for generations. Since older people don't take many IQ tests, the actual population average will be less than 100.

          • The scale is adjusted periodically to make the average 100. But, as you noted, the IQ has been going up for generations. Since older people don't take many IQ tests, the actual population average will be less than 100.

            IQ hasn't actually been going up, they just make changes to the test to make it culturally agnostic while elderly people taking tests experience cognitive decline which comes with aging for many. It's not the same test which was given decades ago so comparing cross-generation results doesn't work (outside the made up "field" of psychology.)

        • By definition the average IQ is 100

          True but, depending on the distribution you can still have more people with a below-average IQ than above average. However, I doubt the problem here is intelligence but rather lack of education and an inability to benefit from the wisdom of those who are smarter than you.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        The average IQ is less than 100.

        It is not a problem of IQ. To fail this extremely, you have to willfully ignore things you know.

        • Or not even read an article and then proclaim a bunch of fictional people idiots based on exactly zero examples or proof in said article?

          That kind of low IQ, extreme fail?

    • This can't be real, right? (Score:4, Informative)

      by charlie merritt ( 4684639 ) on Monday May 18, 2020 @06:04PM (#60075362)

      Can't be real? YES
      You get confederate flag wavers
      Anti vaxers
      2nd amendment
      Anti abortion (because its meant to kill WHITE babies)
      Truthers (ha)
      Pro trump
      Pizza parlor pedophilia
      Qanon is God
      Masks are the source of cancer ...and you are surprised to learn the Virus-by-RF crowd joins them?
      Should be no more shocking than finding the zoo is full of unusual animals.

      yes, AC because delusional nuts is dangerous nuts

      • by charlie merritt (4684639)
        yes, AC because delusional nuts is dangerous nuts

        I think you forgot something.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by DesScorp ( 410532 )

        Can't be real? YES
        You get confederate flag wavers
        Anti vaxers
        2nd amendment
        Anti abortion (because its meant to kill WHITE babies)
        Truthers (ha)
        Pro trump
        Pizza parlor pedophilia
        Qanon is God
        Masks are the source of cancer ...and you are surprised to learn the Virus-by-RF crowd joins them?
        Should be no more shocking than finding the zoo is full of unusual animals.

        yes, AC because delusional nuts is dangerous nuts

        Oh the irony, a post calling people stupid that contains weapons grade stupidity itself.

        A connection with the 2nd Amendment? Flags? Voting for Trump? The utter ridiculousness of your post doesn't bother me as much as the number of people that modded such nonsense up.

        • >> Oh the irony, a post calling people stupid that contains weapons grade stupidity itself.

          I called no one stupid.
          I did imply that you will find a certain cluster of groups that show up together and that that cluster is the likely "great attractor" the new anti-5G people will gravitate toward. I would also predict the new Anti-5G folks are unlikely to be found in other "attractive groups" like the Skeptic's Society, EE Dpt. or the Virology Dept at U.

          I applied "stupid" to no one
          {I made unfortunate re

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by self.quarantine() ( 6813946 )

      The preposterous claim that 5G can spread the coronavirus, either by suppressing the immune system or by directly transmitting the virus over radio waves, led to dozens of tower burnings in the UK and mainland Europe.

      It doesn't help that the people who should know better (experts, authorities) lump together two different conspiracy theories into one. The first one, about 5G "suppressing the immune system", is improbable but not preposterous, since excessive exposure to some forms of radiation is a known trigger for autoimmune diseases, particularly cancer. So it's simply a matter of extending widely known medical facts into realms where they don't belong, sort of like applying Newton's laws of gravitation to blackholes.

      • The preposterous claim that 5G can spread the coronavirus, either by suppressing the immune system or by directly transmitting the virus over radio waves, led to dozens of tower burnings in the UK and mainland Europe.

        This is really well into "Too crazy-stupid to be permitted to run around loose without a leash and a keeper armed with a Tazer" territory.

        It doesn't help that the people who should know better (experts, authorities) lump together two different conspiracy theories into one.

        And, like one of the postings above, people who lump this completely mindless crap in with political positions they happen to disagree with.

    • Read the article and read the exactly no examples of what they are claiming.

      There might be actual examples, but they sure as fuck aren't in the article.

    • I'm of the opinion that very few people actually believe this, and a few malicious folks are just using it as a handy excuse to commit arson or vandalism. In other words, most are either copycat crimes, a handy cover for people who oppose the deployment of 5G for other reasons, or even just lashing out against the telecoms, which are undoubtedly pretty high on the list of America's most hated companies.

      I don't know why, but for some reason I'd rather attribute this to maliciousness instead of ignorance / g

    • Re:I can't even begin to imagine (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Monday May 18, 2020 @06:58PM (#60075610)

      How anyone in their right mind could associate radio waves with the transmission of a virus. Computer viruses, yes, human viruses, no. I feel like man-kind is regressing to the days of the Troglodytes. This can't be real, right?

      This is real. Unfortunately. It means there is a class of people that cannot be educated, because they believe they are right (and superior to everybody else in that) even when they have it utterly and completely wrong and their education would let them verify the truth. Instead they just decide they are right and the do it on something where they are completely wrong. There is no hope for these people, they will never understand anything.

      • Re:I can't even begin to imagine (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18, 2020 @08:48PM (#60075986)

        There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

        — Issac Asimov

    • potential attacks on cell towers and telecommunications workers by vandals, anti corporation thugs, and bored teenagers who are using 5G/coronavirus conspiracy theories as a "cover" because the media is eating that bullshit troll story up like candy.

    • How anyone in their right mind could associate radio waves with the transmission of a virus.

      Radio waves have been shown to transmit viruses: your computer is potentially susceptible to a virus it receives over WiFi. So you only have to be stupid enough to think that there is no difference between a biological virus and a computer virus.

      Given that there are people who think they are sensitive to EM radiation (usually taken by them to mean just radio waves) it does not surprise me at all that there are idiots out there unable to make this distinction. What does surprise me is that they have turn

    • How anyone in their right mind could associate radio waves with the transmission of a virus. Computer viruses, yes, human viruses, no. I feel like man-kind is regressing to the days of the Troglodytes. This can't be real, right?

      As George Carlin said: "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

  • Idiots are everywhere (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SlayerOfKings ( 959336 ) on Monday May 18, 2020 @05:54PM (#60075296)
    We're normally pretty chill down here in New Zealand compared to the USA, but even we are having trouble with this. We've had a double digit number of cellphone towers torched in the last few weeks. There seems to be a real anti-science movement brewing the last few years. We've got anti vaxx, anti GMO, anti wifi, anti 5G , anti fluoride, anti 1080, the flat earth brigade etc just to name a few. Kind of scary.

    • Anti 1080? WTF? I thought I found every insanity but there are really people who oppose high resolution? I have to admit, I'm curious what's the big evil conspiracy behind that.

      • Re:Idiots are everywhere (Score:5, Funny)

        by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Monday May 18, 2020 @07:05PM (#60075640)

        Is 1080 too high or too low? I.E. are we talking about "Pro-720p" or "Pro-4K" here?

        • Re:Idiots are everywhere (Score:5, Informative)

          by SlayerOfKings ( 959336 ) on Monday May 18, 2020 @08:54PM (#60076012)

          Is 1080 too high or too low? I.E. are we talking about "Pro-720p" or "Pro-4K" here?

          Anti 1080? WTF? I thought I found every insanity but there are really people who oppose high resolution? I have to admit, I'm curious what's the big evil conspiracy behind that.

          Not the resolution (although I'm not a fan of that 1080.. 1920x1200 or 1440p all day lol) It's a brand name for a poison used by our government for widespread aerial drop pest control in our national parks etc. You can read more on Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by jemmyw ( 624065 )
        1080 is a poison they drop in NZ bushland to control invasive species. Anti-1080 campaigners don't seem to understand, or don't care, that if those drops were stopped we would probably lose most of the native birds to introduced stoats / rats etc. Of course they have more of a solid scientific base than the other anti-science campaigns in that if you eat 1080 you would actually die, and it has killed pets and livestock via misapplication before.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ukoda ( 537183 )
      Fortunately most seem to be mainly only one area, South Auckland, so my guess is there is a lot of damage being done by a small number of people. It is a shame though because they are only hurting their own community.

  • Now they've gone and done it - vastly increased the surface area of the "search for 'covid and 5G'" bubble... One of those rare geometric entities where volume goes to zero as surface area becomes infinite...

  • Simple solution for simple people (Score:3, Funny)

    by MiniMike ( 234881 ) on Monday May 18, 2020 @06:00PM (#60075332)

    Just tell these idiots that the only effective method to destroy the 5g virus is to first climb the tower and then set it on fire from the bottom up.

    • Don't sound too confident about your solution. Those people are so stupid, they just might find a way that defies the laws of physics...

      "My cousin kept saying that gravity isn't real, and not a minute later he was floating into outer space."

      • Maybe just put a sign on the tower "This tower has been injected with bleach and is virus-free".

  • I’ve been warning everyone for years about 5 (Score:5, Funny)

    by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Monday May 18, 2020 @06:12PM (#60075388)
    For years now, I’ve been telling everyone in the industry that the “Give everyone a virus” setting was too close to the “Make everyone allergic to bread” setting. But did anyone listen? Noooo
  • People who attack cell towers shouldn't be allowed in this society. It's time to clean the gene pool.

  • Idiot Post By Idiots, About Idiots (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Lonng_Time_Lurker ( 6285236 ) on Monday May 18, 2020 @06:19PM (#60075414)

    From the ARTICLE:

    “Misinformation campaigns” (Me: like this article?)

    ABC quoted DHS as saying that "since December 2019, unidentified actors conducted at least five arson incidents targeting cell towers in Memphis, Tenn., that resulted in more than $100,000 in damages... Additionally, 14 cell towers in western Tennessee, between February and April, were purposely turned off by way of disabling their electrical breakers."

    The warning to law enforcement agencies said that an April 22 Facebook post "encouraged individuals associated with anarchist extremist ideology to commit acts of sabotage by attacking buildings and 5G towers around the world in furtherance of an 'International Day of Sabotage'" and that videos have been posted online "showing people how to damage or destroy cell towers," according to ABC.

    So since Dec 2019, people were burning down cell towers (because of covid, in december?).

    Purposefully turned off? There is a long history of theft and damage to cell towers.

    Definitely somehow the April 22 FB post affected the towers since December. It definitely affected everyone's ability not to be an idiot, including this entire post and thread.

    In fact, there is not even ONE anecdotal cell tower vandalism reference in the article due to covid beliefs.

    Good stuff everyone, keep calling everyone idiots.

  • I don't believe they believe 5G causes their problems. They're lying. The reason they're sabotaging infrastructure has jack shit with whatever they're saying. They're sabotaging networks because _____. Ok, so I can't fill in the blank, but I can easily make up plenty of amazingly stupid reasons for sabotaging networks which are, nevertheless, much more believable than the "I break random things because I'm just an innocent slobbering fuckwit" explanation.

    At the top of my bullshit (but still more-believable)

  • Serious question.
    Our species doesn't seem to be getting smarter overall over time, it seems to be getting dumber and dumber, and straying into the 'violent stupidity' area, which is even worse; being stupid when it only hurts you is one thing, being stupid and it hurting others, or your society as a whole, is something else entirely.
    So seriously: Is our species just too gods-be-damned stupid to survive? Or are the stupid ones just more visible, blips on the evolutionary radar, and they'll sort themselves

    • Yup, our species is getting dumber, and your example is a discussion about how we're upgrading wireless infrastructure (yet again).

      We're also at an all time low in societal violence.

      The only gods-be-damned stupid act here is getting all your information from click bait headlines and not reading actual articles. Where there is no proof whatsoever this is actually happening (at least in the linked and sub-linked articles)

      • The only gods-be-damned stupid act in your comment is making the assumption that I'm only talking about this 5G issue. I'm drawing from a wide array of utter, inexplicable stupidity I've been seeing for years now, bringing me to wonder if we're devolving or something.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by DanDD ( 1857066 )

          Watch the movie Agora [imdb.com]. It paints a fairly clear picture of just how stupid people have always been.

          It's always been a fairly small percentage of society that actually bother to think. Fortunately, we live in the age of the printing press, so intelligent thoughts are more likely to be preserved.

  • Our society has a virus: Snow Crash [wikipedia.org].

    It's a bit dated, but a good read, and quite relevant, considering current events.

  • 5G spreads the surveillance state.

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