In 2011, a 75-year-old woman in Georgia cut off the internet in all of Armenia, as well as parts of Georgia and Azerbaijan. But how did this happen?
The woman was looking for scrap copper to sell. When she found a huge metal cable, she was tempted by the sight. She took out a saw and began cutting it to determine whether it was copper or not. Because of her actions, the internet was cut off for 3.2 million people.
A team was quickly dispatched to investigate the problem. Upon arriving, they found her still cutting the cable. They arrested her and asked her why. She replied, “I don’t even know what the internet is!”
The cable was repaired within 12 hours, and the poor old woman was released.
This is one of the greatest accidental disasters in modern history. A 75-year-old grandmother, armed with nothing but a saw and a dream of finding some scrap copper, managed to do what hackers and cyberterrorists could only dream of: take down the internet for an entire country.
She didn’t mean to. She had no idea what she was doing. She probably didn’t even know that the massive cable she was sawing through was responsible for keeping millions of people connected to the digital world. She just saw metal. Potential money. A way to make ends meet. And she started cutting.
Somewhere, in offices across Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, the internet suddenly went dark. Businesses stopped. Communication halted. Websites went offline. And IT teams scrambled to figure out what had happened. Was it a cyberattack? A natural disaster? Equipment failure?
No. It was a grandmother with a saw.
When the team arrived to investigate, they found her still there, still cutting, completely oblivious to the chaos she’d caused. They arrested her, probably more out of protocol than malice, and asked the obvious question: Why did you do this?
Her answer was perfect in its simplicity: “I don’t even know what the internet is!”
And with that, she became a legend. Not a villain. Not a criminal mastermind. Just an old woman trying to survive, who happened to saw through one of the most important cables in the region.
The authorities, to their credit, recognized that this was not malicious. This was poverty meeting ignorance meeting bad luck. They repaired the cable within 12 hours and released her. No charges. No punishment. Just a very confused grandmother and 3.2 million people who suddenly had a very good story to tell.
This story is a reminder that the systems we depend on—the internet, infrastructure, connectivity—are often more fragile than we realize. That one saw, in the hands of someone who doesn’t even know what the internet is, can bring down entire networks. And that sometimes, the biggest disruptions come not from sophisticated attacks, but from ordinary people just trying to get by.
The 75-year-old woman in Georgia didn’t set out to become internet-famous. She just wanted some copper. But in the process, she reminded the world that behind every system, every network, every connection, there are physical cables. And those cables can be cut by anyone with a saw and a reason.
The internet was restored. The grandmother went home. And somewhere, IT professionals added a new item to their disaster preparedness plans: “Protect cables from elderly scrap collectors.”