By ANDREY PROFOTO @Adobe Stock
Aleksander Cwalina of the Atlantic Council reports that concerns are growing about possible Russian sabotage of vital undersea cables. He writes:
The United States has recently detected indications of increased Russian military activity around key undersea cables, CNN reports. The news is adding to existing concerns over the vulnerability of critical undersea communications infrastructure at a time when the Kremlin is accused of waging an escalating hybrid war against the West in parallel to its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Undersea cables play a key role in many aspects of modern society, accounting for the vast majority of digital communication including internet traffic and more than $10 trillion in daily worldwide financial transactions. Hundreds of undersea cables run across the world’s seas and oceans, with cables in the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea seen as being particularly at risk from potential Russian sabotage.
The world’s critical undersea infrastructure is largely unguarded and its exact positions are available in the public domain, creating a potentially tempting target for the Kremlin. Western intelligence officials believe Russia’s efforts to monitor and build up technical capability to access this vast undersea infrastructure are expanding and are currently spread among a number of different branches of the country’s military and security services, including the Russian Navy and the Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research (GUGI).
Though Russian officials have remained largely tight-lipped over the Kremlin’s alleged interest in undersea cables, former Russian President and close Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev stated in 2023 that there were no longer any constraints left “to prevent us from destroying the ocean floor cable communications of our enemies.” […]
With no end in sight to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the threat to undersea cables looks set to remain for some time to come. A range of measures are already being implemented to improve security, but much more needs to be done. As Western governments look to bolster protection for existing underwater infrastructure, it may also be wise to further expand backup capacity in order to minimize disruption and bolster Western resilience against potentially devastating attacks.
Read more here.
