Marine cables serve as arteries for the Internet as it transmits data between continents and supports a digital economy that grows in a growing way. These cables consist of strictly compressed optical fiber lines and covered with strong plastic or steel wires. If you are broken, the cause is usually an accident caused by major fishing vessels or vessels dragged on the seabed. But sometimes the reason for sabotage, whether it is a looting or a planned attack by a government, is within the unconventional wars. For example, a cable was cut off in the mid -November of optical fiber in the Baltic, one of them connecting Finland and Germany, and the other connects Lithuania and Sweden. Although the cause was not immediately determined, the governments of the region suspected that the damage was deliberate. What is the importance of marine cables for the internet? It is these cables that enable people to send email, publish photos on social media, make video calls, complete payments, broadcast films and access artificial intelligence services such as “chatgpt”. Companies and governments depend on communication, providing public services, implementing payments, management of supply chains and many other matters. Despite the rapid growth of satellite -based Internet services such as Elon Musk, more than 95% of the global data movement is still passed on by marine cables, according to the International Cable Protection Committee. Who is responsible for protecting marine cables? Cable owners are responsible for the maintenance and security of their networks, and they are often telecommunications companies or important technology companies such as “Google” alphabet “and” Mita platforms “. Many of these businesses are American, which gives the United States of America and its allies a sense of safety, especially when it comes to the fear that hostile countries will enter the cables to intercept sensitive contacts. To reduce the interruption caused by cable outages, businesses often prove more than one cable on the same road or reach their agreements with other cable owners to provide backup capacity. In the event that one of the cables is out of order, the owners and businesses that rent an area on the cable can usually convert the movement of data into another cable, with a relative ease, with a specialized ship for investigation and repairs. In the event that the evidence shows that the damage has occurred deliberately, either because of a suspicious activity of ships in the region or the way to cut the cable, the role of law enforcement and national security agencies comes to intervention. What are the weaknesses? Modern cables – mostly thickness of the garden irrigation – are usually buried under the seabed when installed. But tidal movements can lead to their rise on the surface of the sea, making it more vulnerable to damage, often due to the anchors or fishing equipment. The risk of damage increases according to the loading methods such as the Red Sea and the street of Malaga, where the cables are concentrated in relatively shallow water, which makes accidents more likely. The island states or areas with a limited connection are more likely to lose if cables are damaged, as one imbalance can lead to a complete interruption of Internet services. Although sabotage in the sea is possible, it is easier to find cables and tamper with them at landing points on land as it is linked to the soil infrastructure. Often these sites are high -level facilities. How many times are the cables damaged? About 200 cases of cable errors were recorded annually, most of which are attributed to fishing activities such as hunting with heavy bulldozer, using heavy seabed equipment, or to the ships of ships, according to data collected by the International Cable Protection Committee. For example, the residents of the Schalid Islands lost internet and telephone services, and the stores stopped accepting payments through credit cards during a full day during October 2022 after the hunting ship caused a cable. During March of the same year, the anchor of the ‘Rubimar’ shipping cut three Internet cables in the Red Sea after being subjected to a rocket fired by the log. Events such as earthquakes and rock shower under the water can also damage the cables. During the past March, an earthquake caused several cables in West Africa, which led to a large internet connection in several countries, including Ivory Coast, Lubiria and Banin. These interruptions created a capacity crisis in the region and lasted weeks for reform, as telecommunications companies tried to find alternative connections. Countries are accused of deliberately destroying marine cables in many rare cases, although this can be difficult. What do we know about cable accidents in the Baltic Sea? Investigators in Estonia, Finland and Sweden suspected that the damage caused to two cables in the Baltic Sea during 2023 was due to an anchor of a ship raising the flag of the Hong Kong. The ship was accompanied by a Russian ice exchange, and has only stopped in Russian ports since it left China a month ago. No decisive results were published in the investigations related to these incidents in public. In the accident to cut cables in November 2024, the Danish army followed a Chinese ship in the Baltic. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said the incident should be investigated as a sabotage action, pointing out that Russia poses an unconventional and military threat to the European Union. What is done about the safety of marine cables? The owner of the cables focuses on building an extra capacity to reduce the dependence on individual cables. It also offers cards from cable tracks to fishing companies and monitor shipping movements using satellite imagery and ships on the shell, and in some cases they give warnings for too many ships. Government agencies also play an increasingly important role in the protection of cables. For example, the US military forces monitor ship activities near cables and pipelines carefully. In Europe, ten countries worked together to locate activities in the Baltic and the North Sea, including the deployment of warships to carry out patrols against potential saboteurs.
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