As if the world needed more internet outages, recently damaged undersea telecom cables are said to be making the situation worse.
Four of the 15 major telecommunications cables in the Red Sea were said to have been severed due to severe damage caused by unknown or mysterious attacks. This has led internet providers into dark territory as they try to find a solution quickly.
Experts confirm that nearly 25% of online traffic is rerouted between Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
The damage to these marine cables was first confirmed by a leading Hong Kong telecommunications company (HGC Global Communications). Such cables are critical yet vulnerable infrastructure because they receive investment from the world’s biggest tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and even Google.
While HGC has today confirmed how they have a successful plan in place to ensure traffic can be rerouted immediately and efficiently, many are wondering if this is the best solution. They even talked about using undersea cables to make up for the losses suffered.
Currently, there is no confirmation of who was behind the attack, but a few weeks ago we saw Yemeni government officials confirm that new Houthi rebels in the Red Sea were very likely.
This will target all cables present in the region as they seek to disrupt major supply chains in this region of the world. But according to a recent report published by the Houthi rebels, they deny involvement in any form of action. As Bloomberg recently reported, their threats continue to grow as we speak on social media, leaving many to wonder if they are behind it.
The group’s leaders publicly released a bold statement denying all accusations against the group. They added that there is zero benefit or intention in targeting such telecommunications cables as they could provide online access to the entire region. Instead, he chose to play the blame game, holding American and British military officials accountable for such damage.
At present, Seacom’s CDO said that it is still in the investigation stage and cannot confirm whether this is indeed an accident or an act of sabotage. Only if they leave the cables behind from the seafloor will they be able to better deduce what happened and whether it was severed.
It was stressed that the problem is more limited to shallow waters, which is where many Houthis attack shipping vessels with the help of drones and missiles.
As for solutions to the problems, experts predict it could take weeks or even months to fully fix them. They also need to obtain respective permissions from the Yemeni maritime authorities to carry out their work.
At the same time, concerns are growing about the risk of more attacks by similar groups in the future, according to an Israeli news outlet called Globes. More issues have to do with finding the right company to carry out the job, as it requires a hefty fee to get the job started.
Image source: DIW-Aigen
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