Underwater Vulnerabilities: The Threat to Global Internet Infrastructure

A Chinese-owned cargo ship called the Yi Peng 3 is sitting idle in Danish waters, after undersea internet cables were cut in the Baltic Sea. European officials have cried sabotage. 

It’s not the first time something like this has happened; similar events have seen cables cut in other parts of the ocean. There’s serious concern that China and Russia are planning more of these attacks, and the way the internet is set up, it wouldn’t take many of them to cause serious problems. 

So how vulnerable is the internet to undersea sabotage? And if a big global conflict were to break out, would the cables be the first casualty?

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