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Because of the increasing number of undersea cable disruptions happening in the past couple of years, NATO is building on a system that will locate damage to undersea cables with an accuracy of one meter and find more routes that data can take if a disruption does occur in a particular line. This project will be called HEIST, says the IEEE in a report, which stands for Hybrid Space-Submarine Architecture Ensuring Infosec of Telecommunications.
The value of transactions transmitted through undersea cables exceeds $10 trillion in total, with Henric Johnson, the vice-chancellor of Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) and HEIST testbed coordinator, saying, “What we’re talking about now is critical infrastructure in the society.” BTH, located in Karlskrona, near the southern coast of Sweden, is one of the partners in the HEIST program. Engineers will work there to develop smart systems that allow cable breaks to be quickly located and develop protocols to quickly and automatically reroute the affected data to satellites.
“We have had incidents of cables that have been sabotaged between Sweden, Estonia, and Finland,” added Johnson. “So those incidents are, for us, a reality.”
Although it may seem that undersea cables are tough infrastructure because of the environment they’re in, these intercontinental connections are very fragile. That’s because these cables, about the thickness of a garden hose, lie on the seafloor instead of being buried underneath. Anything dragging on the ocean floor—a sea creature, a loose anchor, or a submarine—could easily damage or even sever these communications cables.
This shows how fragile our internet-driven world is, especially given that over 95% of global data traffic is carried through these undersea fiber optics. About a hundred cable cuts happen each year, with about 600 undersea cables globally, meaning that about 16% of global connections are down yearly. Although there are specially designed ships stationed worldwide to repair faults as soon as they happen, these often take days or weeks and could cost millions of dollars.
Satellites are the primary backups to undersea cables, but their bandwidth is far behind physical connections. For example, Google’s latest fiber-optic lines can hit 340 terabits per second. In contrast, the frequency used by most satellites—12 to 18GHz—can only handle about 5 gigabits per second or about 0.0015% of the maximum throughput of Google’s fiber connection.
Work is underway to upgrade satellites from radio transmissions to lasers, increasing the speed by about 40 times to 200 Gbps. Starlink already uses this technology to communicate between its satellites, while Amazon is also developing it for its own Project Kuiper. However, it still faces challenges, like poor visibility and targeting precision between the satellite and ground station.
Because this is a major NATO project, the alliance plans to open-source part of the process. Making it public would allow anyone interested to find holes and make many iterations. Gregory Falco, the NATO Country Director for HEIST, believes that this is the fastest way for the project to achieve its goals and help prevent any catastrophic loss of data transmission in case of deliberate attacks against these underwater infrastructures in international waters.
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An undersea fiber optic cable between Latvia and Sweden was damaged on Sunday, likely as a result of external influence, Latvia said, triggering an investigation by local and NATO maritime forces in the Baltic Sea:
"We have determined that there is most likely external damage and that it is significant," Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina told reporters following an extraordinary government meeting.
Latvia is coordinating with NATO and the countries of the Baltic Sea region to clarify the circumstances, she said separately in a post on X.
Latvia's navy earlier on Sunday said it had dispatched a patrol boat to inspect a ship and that two other vessels were also subject to investigation.
From Zerohedge's coverage:
Over the past 18 months, three alarming incidents have been reported in which commercial ships traveling to or from Russian ports are suspected of severing undersea cables in the Baltic region.
Washington Post recently cited Western officials who said these cable incidents are likely maritime accidents - not sabotage by Russia and/or China.
Due to all the cable severing risks, intentional and unintentional, a report from late November via TechCrunch [linked by submitter] said Meta planned a new "W" formation undersea cable route around the world to "avoid areas of geopolitical tension."
Related:
- NATO Plans to Build Satellite Links as Backups to Undersea Cables
- Finnish Investigators Discover Anchor Drag Marks of "Almost a Hundred Kilometers" in Cable Case
- Undersea Power Cable Connecting Finland And Estonia Experiences Outage Capacity Reduced To 35%
- Two Undersea Internet Cables Connecting Finland and Sweden to Europe Have Been Cut
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04, @11:26PM
We need more backup systems in case of Russian sabotage, which will get worse, unless responded swiftly and decisively.
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Slava Ukraini! Slay the orcs!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday January 05, @12:08AM (5 children)
don't give the contract to Elon fucking Musk's Starlink. This guy already has way too much influence on US policies as it is and the last thing we need is to entrench the danger he represents even deeper.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 05, @02:34AM
On putting eggs in baskets and centralization:
A ship dragging anchor will do a big number on undersea cables.
A ton of fine concrete aggregrate launched into an elliptical polar orbit will do a big number on satellites.
Our modern centralization and technology depends on a lot of orbiting glass houses.
Trouble is is most anyone can throw a monkey wrench into the works to stop "the machine".
(Score: 4, Interesting) by canopic jug on Sunday January 05, @08:37AM (2 children)
This guy already has way too much influence on US policies as it is and the last thing we need is to entrench the danger he represents even deeper.
Indeed. Elon Musk ordered Starlink to be turned off during Ukraine counter-offensive [theguardian.com] in order to stop Ukraine from regaining ground. The US DoD would be exceedingly foolish to trust anything to him, especially given his frequent contact with his boss in Moscow [apnews.com] and his key role in promulgating propaganda on behalf of said same boss [europa.eu]. He has already signals which side he is on.
Then there is the additional matter of his status as an illegal migrant, something which at least on paper ought to affect his access to defense officials.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by turgid on Sunday January 05, @12:07PM
A wartime mindset is required [theguardian.com] in Europe.
They're making huge progress [theguardian.com] right here in the UK [theguardian.com].
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 06, @02:38AM
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday January 06, @04:16PM
The problem is that where satellites are involved or "Space Launch anything" Starlink/SpaceX is the way. Everything else is definitively worse and/or more expensive.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Username on Monday January 06, @01:26AM (1 child)
If an anchor can reach it, that means it's not very deep. Why not drag some kind of plow or ditchwitch and bury the cable?
(Score: 3, Informative) by canopic jug on Monday January 06, @03:58PM
Why not drag some kind of plow or ditchwitch and bury the cable?
The short answer is that the bottom of the Baltic is mostly bedrock [marinefinland.fi].
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.