The increasing phenomenon of underwater internet cable sabotage is a cause for alarm
Underwater fiber optic cables, essential for transmitting high-speed communications between countries, are increasingly taking on a strategic role, and in light of some doubts about the possibility of sabotage, a new organization was born with the aim of protecting this as much as possible. At the end of last November, the creation of the International Advisory Body on the Resilience of Undersea Cables was announced.
The body has been jointly established by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations Digital Technologies Agency, and the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC). It will consist of around 40 members, including ministers, heads of regulatory bodies, industry executives, and high-level experts.
The group's goal will be to "ensure timely deployment and repair of submarine cables, reduce the risk of damage, and improve the continuity of cable communications," the ITU noted.
According to the same organization, an average of 150 to 200 failures occur worldwide each year, and about three cable repairs are required per week. “Submarine cables carry more than 99 percent of international data traffic, so their resilience is a global necessity,” says ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin, adding that the “advisory body” will mobilize experts from around the world to ensure that this vital digital infrastructure remains resilient to disasters, accidents, and other risks.
In recent months, several submarine cable failures in the Baltic Sea have made headlines. Although the exact origin of the problem is unknown, the cutting of the cable connecting Germany and Finland has raised suspicions towards China, as a Chinese ship was in those waters at the time. However, China has offered its cooperation when investigating the origin of this external damage to the cables, which also raises suspicions towards Russia.
This was not the only outage recorded in November. In parallel with the outage between Germany and Finland, incidents also occurred on the submarine cable between Lithuania and Sweden.
Given the rift between Germany and Finland, the foreign ministers of both countries issued a joint statement expressing their “concern” about what happened. “The fact that an incident of this kind immediately raises suspicions of deliberate damage says a lot about the volatility of our times,” they said.
Undersea cables are not only essential for providing commercial internet. They are strategic infrastructure in that they allow for the rapid transmission of sensitive information between countries, and therefore their protection becomes essential in times of geopolitical uncertainty, requiring coordinated protection between countries.