How Vulnerable Are Undersea Internet Cables to Russian Attacks?
In our hyper-connected world, hundreds of millions of internet users’ connections rely on a glass fiber strand no larger than a human hair.
Where do people get their internet?
I asked this question in a completely non-scientific poll of some friends and family, and even a few children, and for many the answer seemed to come from the sky:
Satellites.
But while Elon Musk’s Starlink system indeed provides supplemental connections for some remote regions — and many satellites provide a backup for military internet use — the world’s online networks are largely powered by a complex system of underwater and underground cabling.
According to TechRadar, “Around 380 undersea cables carry over 99.5% of all transoceanic data, running for 750,000 miles across the ocean floor.”
These fiber optic wires connect the massive data centers supporting cloud behemoths such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.”
The first submarine communications cables provided near-instant telecommunications links between continents, such as the first transatlantic telegraph cable, which became operational in August of 1858.
