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Russian Submarines are 'Prowling Around' Undersea Internet Cables (thehill.com)
An anonymous reader quotes The Hill:
Russian submarine activity around undersea cables that provide internet and other communications connections to North America and Europe has raised concerns among NATO officials, according to The Washington Post. NATO officials say an unprecedented amount of Russian deep-sea activity, especially around undersea internet lines, constitutes a newfound "vulnerability" for NATO nations. "We are now seeing Russian underwater activity in the vicinity of undersea cables that I don't believe we have ever seen," said NATO submarine forces commander and U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Andrew Lennon. "Russia is clearly taking an interest in NATO and NATO nations' undersea infrastructure."
"The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment about the cables," reports the Washington Post, adding that "prowling around" the cables "could give the Kremlin the power to sever or tap into vital data lines, officials said."
They cite the commander of NATO's submarine forces, who says "We know that these auxiliary submarines are designed to work on the ocean floor, and they're transported by the mother ship, and we believe they may be equipped to manipulate objects on the ocean floor."
"The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment about the cables," reports the Washington Post, adding that "prowling around" the cables "could give the Kremlin the power to sever or tap into vital data lines, officials said."
They cite the commander of NATO's submarine forces, who says "We know that these auxiliary submarines are designed to work on the ocean floor, and they're transported by the mother ship, and we believe they may be equipped to manipulate objects on the ocean floor."
They're probably laying time bombs or remote activation bombs for when they attack Estonia.
towards well, your guess as good as mine..
Fact is that nervousness is increasing with all the little acts some "not so smart" people are undertaking.
How did wars start? Some event, be it a shot or some other rocket started, when the exciting level is pushed up and the spark ignites.
Are people learning from the past, looking at the current actors, definitely no. All feeding their own insanity and the millions either seduced by emotional excitement or staying remote in disgust are suffering from those the games those jerks play.
Truly amazing that this nonsense still happens.
System failure, reset & reboot, but on what hardware???
The US used to (still does, I bet) tap Russian cables. Turnabout is fair play?
Read "Blind Man's Bluff" for stories of us playing all sorts of crazy sub games against the Russians.
Kinda feels like we've got a new Cold War, don't it? Only now it's an Information / Data / Commerce thing, not a Nukes thing.
A more concerning question is: Have they installed cable severing devices that can be remotely triggered? I suppose a remotely-triggered bomb would be easy enough, but it might be something more sophisticated, such as a method to turn off a repeater and then turn it back on again later.
If we ever get into a war with a country that has submarines (or Disney, for that matter), expect intercontinental internet and phone service to be gone for the duration.
This would be a crippling economic tactic, so long as the US would suffer more than the country at war. For most countries it would be a net win for them.
I can't think of any realistic way to protect this asset, either.
Maybe satellite internet (per previous Slashdot article) isn't such a bad idea?
You can bet that there will be explosives placed in various locations under the main internet communication links. Should it be required, a remote detonation signal could be sent and then say goodby to the internet. I suppose if they were going to go that far then they would also disable / destroy any satellites. Europe and the US would have almost all communications cut - good luck responding to a Russian threat in a timely manner.
This is all theoretical but if I were Russia, I would do it. Much easier then tapping into cables and there would be no way to find said explosives.
Was going to bring up just this same thing... We tapped the undersea cable in the sea of Okhotsk in the early 70s, operation Ivy bells was the name of it. So they are sniffing around the cables? Big whoopy. The fact is that they can monitor/ interrupt data just fine by compromising the network infrastructure that the internet runs on. I suspect that they are looking at the easiest locations to sever the cables in a time of war. Remember that the Chinese are also out there in the cyber war arena as well. Throw in the North Koreans and the Iranians and the environment is pretty grim. The fact is that they are all facing the American industrial and military as targets of their cyber efforts to even the technological fields and to be ready for possible disruption. We are good but they are many. That and we train them in our schools and then send them home...