Inside the Pentagon and the nation's spy agencies, the assessments of Russia's growing naval activities are highly classified and not publicly discussed in detail. American officials are secretive about what they are doing both to monitor the activity and to find ways to recover quickly if cables are cut. But more than a dozen officials confirmed in broad terms that it had become the source of significant attention in the Pentagon.
"I'm worried every day about what the Russians may be doing," said Rear Adm. Frederick J. Roegge, commander of the Navy's submarine fleet in the Pacific, who would not answer questions about possible Russian plans for cutting the undersea cables.
Cmdr. William Marks, a Navy spokesman in Washington, said: "It would be a concern to hear any country was tampering with communication cables; however, due to the classified nature of submarine operations, we do not discuss specifics."
In private, however, commanders and intelligence officials are far more direct. They report that from the North Sea to Northeast Asia and even in waters closer to American shores, they are monitoring significantly increased Russian activity along the known routes of the cables, which carry the lifeblood of global electronic communications and commerce.
Just last month, the Russian spy ship Yantar, equipped with two self-propelled deep-sea submersible craft, cruised slowly off the East Coast of the United States on its way to Cuba — where one major cable lands near the American naval station at Guantánamo Bay. It was monitored constantly by American spy satellites, ships and planes. Navy officials said the Yantar and the submersible vehicles it can drop off its decks have the capability to cut cables miles down in the sea.
See also a BBC story here.
Related Stories
EU leaders suspect sabatoge:
An internet cable connecting Finland to Germany and another one between Lithuania and Sweden, both running under the Baltic Sea, were cut within 24 hours of one another. While accidental damage on undersea cables happens, CNN says these are rare events. So, the disruption of two cables around 65 miles apart and happening nearly simultaneously is a sign of sabotage, says German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
"Nobody believes that these cables were accidentally severed," said Pistorius. "We have to know that, without knowing specifically who it came from, that it is a hybrid action, and we also have to assume that, without knowing by whom yet, that this is sabotage." The Finnish and German foreign ministers have also issued a joint statement, saying, "The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicious of intentional damage speaks volumes about the volatility of our times." They also add, "Our European security is not only under threat from Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors."
These events came a few months after NATO warned that Russia was developing strategies to disrupt the global internet, with the latter mapping undersea fiber optic cables as future reference. Right before the suspected sabotage occurred, the US government also recently allowed Ukraine to use some long-range US weapons to attack targets in the Kursk region inside Russia, enflaming tensions further and heightening suspicions of Russian involvement.
[...] Despite these attacks, internet disruption remains limited. Telia Lithuania, the company that runs the Lithuania-Sweden cable, says that the damaged cable handled about a third of Lithuania's internet capacity but that traffic has already been restored even though the cable is yet to be repaired. Cinia, the company behind Finland-Germany fiber optic cable, also confirmed that service through that line was down. It also said that its telecommunications network is run through multiple links, thus limiting disruption.
Update 11/20/2024 03:38 PT: The Danish Navy has boarded and detained the Chinese Bulk Carrier Yi Peng 3 in the Danish Straits, near the exit of the Great Belt, according to reports in Eurasia Daily and Defence24. The detention reportedly took place on the evening of November 18. Officials have not verified those reports, however. According to Financial Times sources, Swedish authorities are "carefully studying the Chinese vessel."
Related:
- Opinion: What's Really Up With Data Disconnects in the Deep Blue Sea?
- UK Official Warns of Russian Risk to Undersea Cables
- Could Russian Subs Stop the Internet?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @06:14AM
Betteridge's law of headlines says no?
I am not so sure since Canada has NO fibre-optic cables that by-pass the US (yet; there is a northwest passage (London-Tokyo) one being built).
(Score: 2) by Username on Thursday November 05 2015, @06:27AM
Find a nice place to splice in where no one can reach.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday November 05 2015, @06:36AM
Find a nice place to splice in where no one can reach.
Then how would THEY reach? Let alone splice?
If anything they would be laying small remote detonation mines on the cables.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @06:46AM
possibly with something like this [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday November 05 2015, @04:40PM
> If anything they would be laying small remote detonation mines on the cables.
Considering how any nation with the capability probably has that in their war plan too, I hope they exchange information regularly to avoid an accident from putting the mines on top of each other.
(Score: 2) by Username on Thursday November 05 2015, @06:54PM
Good point, poor choice of words. Would have been better to use discover than reach.
There is no point in destroying a cable they can use. In US/Russian relations there was always that history one-upmanship. They send a satellite/station into space, we go to the moon. We get nuclear weapons, they make one 10x the yield. It would make sense that we tap cables, they would try to supersede us by doing it in a hard to reach place.
Plus bombing a US installation isn’t just bumping into a ship, it’s an act of war, and seems a little too stupid for the russians.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday November 05 2015, @06:47AM
We know they can do it because we did it first! [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1, Disagree) by frojack on Thursday November 05 2015, @08:34AM
Your own link discounts that theory. Maybe read it next time.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday November 05 2015, @08:42AM
I find it highly unlikely that "anchor drops" or other "accidents" cut that many cables all encircling a very strategically-important area all in a single year.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @10:37AM
Especially since at least one incident involved invisible boats.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @01:51PM
Sometimes called submarines.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Dunbal on Thursday November 05 2015, @12:48PM
The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming! Seriously you Americans make me laugh. Get over yourselves already. Every time I think you've calmed down some other idiot either in NATO or the US military dreams up these "scary scenarios" where Russia suddenly destroys the United States because of some new imaginary "threat". What you should be MORE afraid of is the billions and billions of dollars your government is bilking you under the pretense of "defending" you, when it has proven time and time again to be no more competent than a drunk teenager. 40 million dollar gas stations [usatoday.com] should concern you. Million dollar washers should scare the crap out of you [bloomberg.com]. While the pentagon may have a "plan" for every possible scenario ready to go, recent years have shown that these plans more likely than not will only result in dead Americans (as well as plenty of dead foreigners of course!) and no net gain - in fact, it will probably make matters WORSE! Y'all need to get your monster government under control and sane again because the threat to the world is actually YOU, nowadays.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @01:26PM
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Thursday November 05 2015, @05:52PM
And the 40 million gas station is NOT a crime? Way to miss the fucking point.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @10:20PM
[quote]From your linked source, the $1,000,000 washer was, in fact, a crime. One which was caught and punished by a fine (essentially for the money back) and an additional 20 years in prison.[/quote]
Yeah, it's fixed now. Expect to see the US military plummet and its effectiveness skyrocket!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @04:42PM
Sorry bud, I guess you drank our koolaid and believe that we have a free system where the people have a say in how things are run... Also, where else in the world is "y'all" used?? You an expat?
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Thursday November 05 2015, @05:57PM
I spent many years in the southern US as a child. I used to be one of America's biggest fans. That's probably where the y'all comes from :) But no, I'm a Canadian ex-pat, not an American one. I currently live in Panama.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @05:45PM
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Thursday November 05 2015, @01:15PM
As other commentators have pointed out, remote operated mines could easily do the trick. There's plenty of submarine fibre in international waters. The hard bits are communicating with the mine; and ensuring it has enough power to monitor for communications to it and do its job when asked.
In the event of all-out war, it's the least you could expect. In the First World War, cutting the enemy's submarine telegraph cables was usual. Activities by Russian submarines now could simply be exercises to test readiness to lay such mines. I would not be surprised if other nations with submarine fleets have similar capabilites that may occasionally be tested without being reported upon.
This is why the military invest so much in satellite communications. Although China has demonstrated satellite killing capability. Killing geostationary and geosynchronous satellites is a bit more difficult becasue of the distances involved.
I would not be surprised if the space-able powers do not have plans drawn up for a significant number of rockets able to place low-orbit communications satellites in place at short notice. They may not have built them yet, but if international tensions grew significantly higher, I can image they would be built.
Non-military traffic that is reliant on submarine cables would have a problem. Organisations with overseas data 'in the cloud' would be somewhat challenged.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Thursday November 05 2015, @01:21PM
Here we go. I wasn't looking for this:
http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/4/9668734/strypi-rocket-launch-failure-department-of-defense-hawaii [theverge.com]
A small, experimental rocket meant to carry 13 communication satellites into space for the Department of Defense failed just one minute after launching from Hawaii last night,...
The launch was part of the US Air Force's Operationally Responsive Space (ORS)-4 mission. The ORS missions are aimed at testing out smaller, alternative launch vehicles, to see if they can get government satellites into space for much lower costs and with much shorter planning times.
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Thursday November 05 2015, @03:42PM
The rumors of tapping into undersea cables are likely just that, rumors. Cutting through the multiple protective layers, or even getting into one of the repeaters, to install a tap under many meters of water? Really not a practical approach.
I expect that the US spy agencies are happy to let these rumors circulate, because they hide a much more prosaic truth. The easy way to tap an undersea cable: Corrupt an equipment manufacturer, either of the repeaters or of equipment on one end of the cable. Or gain direct access to one of the end stations. Failing that, intercept an equipment delivery and add your spyware [cnet.com] before it gets delivered.
All very ordinary and unsexy. Tales of 20000 leagues under the sea sound so much better.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @05:54PM
There are more connections than that for fall back/alternative routes. That is the entire point.
Worst case you roll over to satellite.. Somehow i think if they cut *EVERY* international line to isolate countries ( which still would have internal communications ), then started shooting birds out of the sky, internet access would be the least of our worries as we would be in the middle of WWIII at that point.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @02:43AM
If the net slows down from a cable break, just enable all the ad blockers.