Two Internet cables between Germany and Finland, as well as between Lithuania and Sweden, have experienced sudden outages. Located in northern Europe, the Baltic Sea is an active commercial shipping route ringed by nine countries, including Russia. The affected countries, all members of NATO, say that it is unlikely to be accidental. This happened in the same waterway in which a significant gas pipeline and other underground cables were previously damaged in mysterious circumstances in 2022. No, Jacque Cousteau didn’t do it.
Germany’s defense minister has said that severing an undersea communications cable between Helsinki and the German port of Rostock is likely to be an act of sabotage. The telecoms cable that connects Helsinki to the German port of Rostock stopped working on the 18th of November, while Finland’s state-controlled cybersecurity and telecoms company Cinia https://www.cinia.fi says that the Internet link between Lithuania and Sweden’s Gotland Island went out of service at about on 17 November 2024. Finland and Germany said in a joint statement that they were “deeply concerned about the severed undersea cable” and were investigating “an incident that immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage.”
This latest incident comes at a time of heightened tensions in the region. President Biden has authorized the use of US-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine against military targets in Russia. “Safeguarding our shared critical infrastructure is vital to our security and the resilience of our societies,” Germany and Finland said.
Cinia has said that a repair vessel has been sent to the scene, although it does not yet know how long it will take to fix the issue. It adds that it typically takes five to 15 days for submarine cables to be repaired. Meanwhile, a German investigation into the 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions is still underway.
Up-date - Geopolitical tensions are brewing globally over the cutting of subsea cables and critical infrastructure powering cross-border internet connectivity in the Baltic Sea. In a statement last week, Lithuania said the BCS East West Interlink cable had been "restored," with traffic flows resuming. "This incident reminded us of the importance of not taking internet connectivity for granted," said its chief technology officer.
Repairing subsea cables is no mean feat, said a senior vice president and chief technology officer of Akamai Labs. "While we're linked with a complex physical web of fiber optic cables over land, the topology becomes more challenging once we plunge into the oceans. It's complex to install subsea cables. And, when there is an issue with a subsea cable, repairing it is a non-trivial job.”
What are subsea cables? Subsea cables are massive fiber-optic cables laid on the seabed, which carry data like webpages, email, and video calls between continents. They are the backbone of the global internet, delivering 99% of the world's intercontinental data traffic.
So, who is to blame? An investigation is underway while the authorities look to determine the perpetrator. The attack has not been attributed to a single entity or country. But last week, the Finnish Foreign Minister said that the government is "in close contact with China, and we have set up a joint team in Sweden and Finland.” Authorities in several EU countries are tracking a Chinese vessel. Investigators suspect the crew of the ship deliberately severed the cables by dragging its anchor along the Baltic seabed. The minister said the incident highlights how EU nations must "focus a lot more on the resilience of the overall connectivity, which is so important regarding data [and] energy infrastructure. If this were a deliberate attack, then it would also have implications for the foreign education policy," she added. Germany, without naming a specific potential suspect, said it believes the cable cut was an act of "sabotage" and possible "hybrid" warfare.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Finland and Germany said the incident "immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage," adding that a "thorough investigation" is being carried out. "Our European security is not only under threat from Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors. Safeguarding our shared critical infrastructure is vital to our security and the resilience of our societies," they added.
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