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Title: Russian Cable Attacks 'Threaten To Cut Off World's Internet'

Link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/04/11/0245...

Military chiefs at Nato have been warned of global internet blackouts
following a string of suspected Russian attacks on subsea cables. From a
report: Telecoms companies including Vodafone, O2 owner Telefonica and Orange
have written to UK, EU and Nato officials warning that a rise in sabotage
incidents was putting critical services at risk. In an open letter, 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." It comes after a spike in incidents relating to fibre optic
cables on seabeds that carry huge volumes of data, voice and internet traffic
between countries. More than 500 cables carry around 95pc of all
international data, while their remote location makes them difficult and
costly to monitor. At least 11 subsea cables have been damaged in the Baltic
Sea since October 2023 and similar outages have been reported in the North
Sea. The incidents have fuelled fears of sabotage by hostile actors, with
more than 50 Russian ships observed in areas of high cable density in the
Baltic Sea. The UK is monitoring the Russian spy ship Yantar amid concerns
that it is mapping critical underwater infrastructure. Concerns have also
been raised about Chinese sabotage following a number of incidents around
Taiwan.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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