Military chiefs at NATO have been warned of potential global internet blackouts following a series of suspected Russian attacks on underwater fibre-optic cables, putting critical services at risk.
Telecom companies, including Vodafone, Telefonica (owner of O2), and Orange, have alerted UK, EU, and NATO officials about the increased sabotage incidents. In an open letter, they warned that damage to subsea cables could have far-reaching repercussions, affecting global internet and power infrastructure, international communications, financial transactions, and critical services worldwide.
The subsea fibre-optic cables on the seabed carry huge volumes of data, voice, and internet traffic between countries. Over 500 cables handle approximately 95% of international data, making them crucial for global communication. However, their remote locations make them difficult and costly to monitor.
Since October 2023, at least 11 subsea cables have been damaged in the Baltic Sea, with similar outages reported in the North Sea. These incidents have raised concerns about sabotage by hostile actors. More than 50 Russian ships have been observed in areas with high cable density in the Baltic Sea, fuelling these concerns. The UK is monitoring the Russian spy ship Yantar, suspected of mapping critical underwater infrastructure.
Concerns have also been raised about Chinese sabotage following incidents around Taiwan. Defence Secretary John Healey has accused Russia of aggression, stating that the UK is aware of their actions and will take robust action to protect national infrastructure. In January, he described the outages as “another example of growing Russian aggression” and assured that the UK “will not shy away from robust action to protect this country.”
A UK parliamentary committee has launched an inquiry into Britain’s ability to defend its subsea infrastructure from attacks. The joint committee on the national security strategy is examining the vulnerability of the internet cable network. Chairman Matt Western noted that “our internet cable network looks like an increasingly vulnerable soft underbelly” as the geopolitical environment worsens.
The telecom companies are advocating for the subsea cable network to be classified as critical infrastructure, receive greater protection and investment, benefit from streamlined permitting, and have clarified governance structures. They are also urging the EU, UK, and NATO to enhance collaboration on intelligence sharing, monitoring, and surveillance initiatives. The companies believe that “harmonised approaches must be developed for the subsea cables ecosystem, aiming to align security objectives with operational feasibility as well as a viable business model and based on proportionate and risk-based best practices, developed in close consultation with industry.”
Vodafone became a major owner of subsea cables after acquiring hundreds of thousands of kilometres of cables from Cable & Wireless in a £1bn deal in 2012. US tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are also increasingly owning this cable line technology.
