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Deep beneath the ocean's waves, out of sight for most, lies the heart of global trade and communication
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And it's more at risk than ever. Undersea fiber optic cables carry nearly all intercontinental internet traffic
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moving about $10 trillion in financial transactions every single day. Another 20,000 miles of seabed pipelines pushes oil and gas across the globe
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ysts at the Center for Maritime Strategy say new technology is making once-secure systems easier to target
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Modified commercial ships and both manned and unmanned deep diving craft can now reach and damage cables or pipelines in waters once thought unreachable
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Recent breaks near Taiwan, in the Baltic Sea, and off Norway, in some cases traced back to Chinese or Russian-linked vessels, raised plenty of alarms
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Beijing claimed at least one was an accident Patent records show Chinese engineers designed tools to sever cables quickly and cheaply There no evidence those devices are in use but their existence shows what possible
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The scale of protecting these systems is enormous, with more than 750,000 miles of cables worldwide and limited naval resources to guard it all
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ysts say the focus may shift to key choke points, like the Malacca Strait or Babau-Mandeb, where multiple systems converge
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There is also a push for more offshore and satellite surveillance, more unmanned patrols, and tighter allied coordination
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Some say the deterrence should also go beyond the sea, raising the cost of any attack
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Recent events showed, though, that without stronger action, the threat to seabed infrastructure
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and the economies it all supports will only grow. For more of our unbiased, straight-fact reporting like this, download the Straight Arrow News
