Russian sabotage on undersea cables could take down the world’s internet connection, NATO military chiefs have been warned. Moscow has also been blamed for a series of suspected attacks on the vital cables, prompting a warning of further escalation in the future. Telecoms companies have raised the alarm, with major providers such as Vodafone and Telefonica, which owns O2, writing to officials to highlight the risk.
Vodafone bought hundreds of thousands of miles of undersea cables in a £1 billion deal with Cable and Wireless in 2012, making it one of the largest owners in the UK. They wrote: “The repercussions of damage to subsea cables extend far beyond Europe, potentially affecting global internet and power infrastructure, international communications, financial transactions and critical services worldwide.”
They told UK, EU and NATO chiefs that network security should be the “absolute priority” by allowing traffic to be rerouted in the event of an attack.
They urged the officials to collaborate more in terms of sharing intelligence, and monitoring and surveillance programmes.
Countries also need to capacity to intervene in an act of sabotage, the telecom companies said, in order to repair the cables quickly.
They called for all undersea cables to be labelled as critical infrastructure to make sure they get the right protection amid a rise in attacks.
The letter continued: “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.”
This comes after an increase in incidents relating to undersea fiber optic cables, with at least 11 being damaged in the Baltic Sea alone since October 2023.
The sea, dubbed “NATO Lake”, has seen over 50 Russian ships in its waters with a high density of cables.
Defence Secretary John Healy called the outages “another exampled of growing Russian aggression” in January.
He said: “I also want President Putin to hear this message: we see you, we know what you are doing, and we will not shy away from robust action to protect this country.”
