Underseas cables linking North America and Europe are part of a network of subsea cables. Photo © US Navy / Joshua Knolla
NATO military and civilian experts have met in Brussels today to ramp up co-operation in responding to attacks on undersea cables.
A NATO statement says the experts were joined by industry representatives, including telecommunications operators.
“Leveraging innovation and technology, including through increased sensing and monitoring to detect suspicious activity near critical undersea infrastructure, is a key focus,” said Ambassador Jean-Charles Ellermann-Kingombe, NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Innovation, Hybrid and Cyber.
“This is not a new problem for NATO but it is one that requires even closer co-operation between civilian and military actors in the face of intensifying hostile campaigns, including by Russia.”
Participants reviewed ways to boost awareness, increase information sharing and preparation, and defend against attacks.
The meeting follows attacks on underseas cables linking Lithuania to Sweden and Finland to Germany.
BACKGROUND
In January 2022, an undersea data cable linking mainland Norway to its Arctic archipelago of Svalbard was deliberately damaged as were data cables that connected Finland to Estonia, Estonia to Sweden and a Russian-maintained cable.
Finnish investigators believe the destructive spree was likely caused by a Hong Kong-registered vessel that dragged its anchor along the seabed during a journey where it docked multiple times at Russia’s Baltic Sea ports.
According to NATO, the undersea cables connecting North America and Europe crosses the mid-Atlantic where the average depth is about 3600 metres.
It says it is still possible for a submarine to interfere with the cables at this depth.
As a back-up due to the harsh conditions, a dense network of cables is available which data is routinely re-routed. This vast network of about 600 cables is active or planned.
Active cables are estimated to extend over 1.4 million kilometres, NATO says.
In May, NATO launched a new Maritime Centre for the Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure in the United Kingdom.
