Russian “fishing” or “oceanographic” vessels and which are, generally, collectors of information, are increasingly traversing the coasts of France and Ireland through which these “information highways” pass. Vietnam lost this way almost 90% of connectivity with the rest of the world for a period of three weeks.Ĭreating a European program to increase EU’s capabilities to prevent attacks on this infrastructure and repair the damages that they could cause is more urgent than ever. In 2007, Vietnamese fishermen cut a subsea cable to recover composite materials and try to resell them. Although these attacks remain unknown to the general public, they are no less worrying and prove the capacity of external powers to separate Europe from the rest of the world. The first attacks of the modern age date back in 2017: it is about the cables between the UK and the US and between France and US. It is difficult to measure intentional attacks, but the movements of some ships have started to draw attention since 2014, their route following submarine telecommunication cables. On average, there are over a hundred breaks of submarine cables every year, caused in general by the fishing boats that pull the anchors. The fear to act will only generate the vulnerability of these espionage systems, interruptions of data flows and undermining the security of the continent. As Europe focuses increasingly more on threats to cybersecurity, investments in the security and resilience of physical infrastructure that are the basis of its communications with the world does not seem to be a priority today. However, while in the near vicinity of the shore, cables are generally reinforced, the average diameter of a subsea cable is not much larger than that of a garden hose.įor several years, the major powers are fighting a “hybrid war”, half open, half secret, for the control of these cables. But are they equally protected? Modern submarine cables use fibre-optic to transmit data with the speed of light. These infrastructures are equally important today as oil and gas pipelines. The reason is simple: they cost more than cables and are infinitely slower. Satellites account for only 1% of data exchanges. Western armed forces are considering a nightmare scenario of total interruption of the Internet in Europe, as 99% of the global network runs through submarine cables. In the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the seabed is more than ever a battlefield that must be protected. Submarine internet cables have a crucial importance, like oil and gas pipelines. Record: 39,000 kilometres length for the SEA-ME-WE 3 cable, which links South-East Asia to Western Europe through the Red Sea. There are over 420 submarine lines in the world, totalling 1.3 million kilometres, over three times the distance from Earth to Moon. The extreme geographic concentration of the cables makes them particularly vulnerable. This is a major issue that has long been ignored. The security of these transactions is a political, economic, and social problem. This is especially the case of the main global financial exchange system, SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications), which has recently been banned for many Russian banks. It is estimated that over USD 10,000 billion in financial transactions run today through these “seabed highways”. 99% of the internet network runs through submarine cables.
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