How China Could Hobble the Internet: The Threat to Undersea Cables

 

Growing Concerns Over Undersea Infrastructure

Not long ago, a part of the British government asked RAND Europe, a think tank in Cambridge, England, to research undersea critical infrastructure. The think tank studied publicly available maps of internet and electricity cables, interviewed experts, and held focus groups. Halfway through the project, Ruth Harris, the leader, realized they had inadvertently unearthed many sensitive details that could be exploited by Russia or other adversaries.

Discovery of Sensitive Information

When Harris approached the unnamed government department with this discovery, they were shocked. "Oh my god. This is secret," was their reaction. Upon learning that Harris's team was drawn from all over Europe, the department demanded that the project be overhauled to include only UK personnel, saying: "This needs to be UK eyes only."

Undersea Cables as Military Targets

Western governments have quietly been concerned about the security of undersea cables, which carry most of the world’s internet traffic, for many years. However, this issue has recently come into sharp focus due to a series of murky incidents from the Baltic Sea to the Red Sea and a broader realization that infrastructure, of all sorts, is a target for subversion and sabotage.