Stories have been all over the place. In short, a series of 5 undersea cables have been cut. Cables very important to Internet connectivity in large areas of the world, including many countries in the Middle East and Southwest Asia.
This has affected a LOT of people in that area of the world. 1.7 million users in the United Arab Emirates have been affected, according to one story. That same story reports “The submarine cable cuts in FLAG Europe-Asia cable 8.3km away from Alexandria, Egypt and SeaMeWe-4 affected at least 60 million users in India, 12 million in Pakistan, six million in Egypt and 4.7 million in Saudi Arabia.”
The first of the 5 cut cables was cut back on January 23rd, the FALCON cable near Iran. Another cut happened on January 30th on the SeaMeWe-4 cable, another on February 1st. A fourth cut on February 3rd managed to seriously disrupt Internet service in Qatar. The fifth cut took place yesterday. In total, we have two breaks near the Suez Canal, two in the Persian Gulf, and one in Malaysia.
These undersea cables carry about 90% of the Internet’s traffic. The other 10% is carried over satellite.
This situation opens up a huge mystery and also points out a fairly serious vulnerability. With that much of the Internet traffic going over undersea cables, it is possible to drastically affect Internet traffic by cutting these cables.
The Mystery
Nobody knows what has caused these cuts in the cables. After the second cut, it was speculated that perhaps some ships were dragging anchor and that the anchor sliced the cable. However, reviews of shipping logs and video footage showed no ships were in the area of the cut.
The Internet is awash in conspiracy theories. Terrorism and sabotage theories abound. Is somebody cutting the cables from underwater? Is it a coincidence that all the cuts are in a hot area of the world, and all within days of each other? Was it an effort to derail Iran’s launch of their petroleum exchange?
Others say it is just coincidence. One story on ABC says that a company called Global Marine Systems says cable repairs are common. Cable breaks can happen as often as once every 3 days. Anchors as well as regular motion of the ocean currents can cause breaks. A story on Wired News says the conspiracy theories are overblown. But, that doesn’t stop some whack-jobs (the 9/11 "truth" seekers) to say that it is all a big U.S. government conspiracy to prepare for bombing the Super Bowl.
So, what do you think? Is this just the perfect storm of coincidence? Or is there some conspiracy afoot to disrupt Internet traffic in this region of the world?
And what does this say about geographic redundancy of the Internet infrastructure?
David Risley is the founder of PCMech.com. He is the brains, the thinker, the writer, the nerd.
Fiberoptic cables can be pinged. Knowing the speed of light, it can be determined just how far the break is away from the shore. A cable layer or a research chip could then go out to the break and determine if it was natural cause or human causes.
Given the relative nearness of the breaks to each other and the number of breaks, I doubt it is natural causes…and I am the last one to be a conspiracy kook.
US submarines tapped into submerged Russian communication cables during the cold war. There are a number of countries with submarines now, including China.
Why someone would want to break cables or tap into cables resulting in breaks is beyond me.
Global Marine, who is one of the companies who lays and repairs the fiberoptic cables will soon find out the cause, although who will still probably remain unknown.
I’m having my doubts that 90% of the worlds internet traffic is routed through the Middle East and through one cable in Malaysia. Why would all the worlds internet traffic be routed in such a circuitous way?
No, I didn’t mean through THOSE cables….but through undersea cables in general.
This is interesting. I am living in India and I was affected by this but I thought it was just a ship that had cut the cables but I guess I was told wrong. Conspiracies over cables like this seem ridiculous to me. I think it was either some unknown creature in the sea or some ridiculous accident(man-made) or they just broke… I am not sure what to think, all I know is that my internet had been going crazy slow.
How deep are these cables underwater? Could one reach the cables with scuba equipment? If not, it seems you’d need equipment (such as a submarine) to purposely cut them.
damn them .. I live in Dubai .. I had to wait 7 days to repair this shit ! wondering .. could be a submarine in the Arabian Gulf ? an American Submarine ? we all know that USA dont like Iran .. maybe they are preparing for a war .. I hope NOT .. for god sake .. noob Iranian !
These temporarily oil-rich Middle Eastern countries, little knowing their oil is finishing too fast and they will be out of oil business soon like Bahrain who already imports oil for their own consumption. They are not knowing the benefits of internet and advanced technology which the West developed and offered to the world.
The world would be so much of a fun and a better place to live if everyone is united with zero anti-social elements including terrorism, partiality, religion indifferences etc.,
No report said how deep these cables were and the cuts. They only mentioned how far they were from the shore of certain ports. Were all these 5 cables cut were at the same depth on the ocean bed?
But I read there were cable security ships guarding these cable routs 24/7. So, how all these 5 incidences have taken place hardly within a week’s time.
Who can know what happened, Vandals with submarines, test to see what goes out, put in the off switch for part of the world ? you cant jam fiber optic but you can cut it.
I think its imposible to know, but it smells bad.