Undersea cables could be Russia’s new targets

Russia’s declared war against Ukraine – and the veiled conflict with the West – may gain new contours with actions on a new flank: that of the world’s communication infrastructure. NATO intelligence services have been detecting potential Russian attacks against undersea internet cables.

According to David Cattler, NATO’s assistant secretary general for intelligence and security, there is a “persistent and significant” risk of attacks by Russia against this type of infrastructure.

According to the TeleGeography.com website, at the beginning of this year the world had 552 active submarine cables, always in constant growth, surpassing 1.2 million kilometers in total. One of the shortest in the world is CeltixConnect, only 131 kilometers long, linking the UK to Ireland. The largest are more than 20,000 kilometers long.

UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace also warned of the risks of Russia attacking these cables. “There is no doubt that Russia has the intention and the ability to hit the underwater lines,” he said in an interview with PA Media. “What we do know is that the Russians have a specific naval program designed to examine and potentially sabotage or attack critical national infrastructure belonging to their adversaries.”

He cites the attack on the Nord Stream pipeline as an example of what is possible to do to an infrastructure under the seas.

Currently, over 95% of international Internet traffic is carried over these cables. Due to its dominance in the transmission of internet information, it is seen as an “economic pivot”. Still according to NATO, they are responsible for transporting US$ 10 trillion in financial transactions daily.

The great concern of the West is the fact that they have detected “monitoring actions” of this system by Russia. It is believed that the objective is to find weak and critical points that can be more easily attacked or that generate greater damage to the countries of North America and Western Europe.

Unlike the cables used in the past for the telegraph, modern submarine cables are designed to support much higher bandwidths and speeds.
faster transmission. They are also more prepared for incidents such as dropped anchors or even shark attacks which, contrary to appearances, are frequent.

“They are designed to be extremely resistant, safe and reliable, but they are not exempt from accidents caused by natural phenomena or marine animals”, explains Rafael Franco, specialist in cybersecurity. “And with society’s high dependence on connectivity, the impacts of these accidents can always be considerable.”

The expert details the pace of damage to one of these cables: “There may be a temporary interruption or loss of connectivity to areas served by this cable. This can affect communication, commerce, financial transactions and various other activities that depend on global connectivity.” However, he explains, submarine cable operators have contingency routes and recovery plans to minimize these impacts.

Regarding the possibility of Russia attacking these cables, Franco points out some drawbacks. “The global network of submarine cables is highly interconnected. While an attack may temporarily affect a specific route, there are often alternative routes available to maintain connectivity.” That is, it would take massive attacks to have considerable damage.

Would the solution to avoid problems be satellite internet? Franco highlights the advantages, but remembers that the costs are still very high. “In addition, another point to consider is data latency, which is the time between a bit leaving one machine and arriving at another. As in the case of the satellite, this involves greater distances, we can make some uses of the internet unfeasible or difficult, as in the case of IOT, the Internet of Things”.