More Sabotaged Cables in the Baltic Sea Raise Concerns

Infrastructure under attack in the Baltic

This most recent attack severed two different fiber-optic cables, the C-Lion1 cable connecting Finland and Germany and the Arelion cable connecting the Swedish island of Gotland to Lithuania. While submarine cables are occasionally damaged unintentionally, this is a rare occurrence and very unlikely to suddenly happen to two different cables 65 miles apart.

Although the incident is still under investigation, the Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 was the only ship in the area and is suspected of severing the cables by dropping its anchor and dragging it across them. In addition to the very suspicious timing, the C-Lion1 cable was placed in a meter-deep trench on the Baltic seabed when it was laid in order to protect it from any accidental damage.

This incident is part of a larger pattern of targeting critical infrastructure as a form of hybrid warfare as tensions rise between Russia and NATO due to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Last October, an undersea cable was damaged in Estonian territory, along with a nearby gas pipeline. In that case, a different Chinese cargo ship was accused of causing the damage by dragging its anchor for over 100 miles.

NATO intelligence officials have warned that Russia is preparing to potentially attack more undersea cables serving Western countries in retaliation for their assistance to Ukraine.

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While attacks on internet cables do cause local outages and can be expensive to repair, most internet users are unlikely to be impacted directly. The internet was created during the height of the Cold War with the explicit goal of creating a communication system that would continue to function when damaged, even in the event of a massive nuclear attack.

Because the internet is a distributed network, even if the path between your computer and a web server is damaged, the information will be routed around the damage so that you don’t lose your connection. This means that even if a cable connecting the U.S. and another country is cut, you will still be able to access servers in that country by connecting via other routes.

In fact, because the U.S. is such a major part of the internet, much of global internet traffic already flows through the country. A hostile country would have to target dozens of undersea cables on both coasts to truly cut off the U.S. from other countries.

This is not to say that an attack on U.S. submarine cables wouldn’t be costly and disruptive. Tech companies like Google and Meta are investing billions of dollars into laying new cables to improve their own global connectivity. Damage to existing cables would be a significant, if temporary, setback.

Fortunately, governments and telecom organizations are taking these attacks seriously. Following the suspected sabotage of C-Lion1 and Arelion, The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) announced the formation of an International Advisory Body for Submarine Cable Resilience. According to the ITU:

“The Advisory Body will address ways to improve cable resilience by promoting best practices for governments and industry players to ensure the timely deployment and repair of submarine cables, reduce the risks of damage, and enhance the continuity of communications over the cables.”

Countries around the Baltic are also stepping up the monitoring of undersea cables and pipelines, which resulted in a Russian warship firing signal ammunition on a German reconnaissance helicopter on Wednesday, according to Zeit Online.

The security of critical communication infrastructure should be taken seriously in the U.S., as well. While undersea cables represent one of the most vulnerable points in our internet infrastructure, internet users shouldn’t worry about potential attacks impacting their normal online activities.