Internet services all over the United Arab Emirates and surrounding areas were severely disrupted over the weekend. That, combined with the uncertainty caused by the apparent effects of some recent undersea cable cuts in the Red Sea, heightened concern. NetBlocks, the internet monitoring organization that tracks and reports on such incidents, documented widespread service disruptions. They attributed these issues to a unique and perfect storm of events during February 2024, causing havoc with data traffic between Asia and Europe.
A month later, Yemen’s internationally recognized government was already warning of imminent sabotage. This alert was issued just as events were developing with the Iran-backed Houthi movement. They had timed it perfectly, having just drawn attention to the threat to undersea cables that the world relies on to communicate. The Houthi movement has denied it is targeting these cables. The timing of the disruptions as of late raises further speculation about their connection to regional tensions.
According to NetBlocks, these subsea cable cuts caused massive international internet disruptions across the United Arab Emirates. They were a major factor in impacting connectivity within India and Pakistan itself. Reports soon emerged that other areas of Asia were experiencing similar problems due to the undersea cable damage.
“Users may experience increased latency due to undersea fibre cuts in the Red Sea,” – Microsoft (via an update posted on the Microsoft website).
The Baltic Sea has likewise seen a string of undersea cable and gas pipeline cuttings. These incidents are believed to be connected to attacks that occurred after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, besides the Red Sea incidents. Swedish authorities recently confiscated a ship for this very reason. They think this vessel is responsible for damaging a cable that runs under the Baltic Sea to Latvia. Together, these shifts have sounded the alarm on the safety of much of our world’s critical infrastructure and its susceptibility to global political strife.
These times are changing fast. These experts are working hard to stay on top of the technical implications of these disruptions, as well as the bigger geopolitical picture. The possibility of future attacks is an especially urgent issue for countries that depend on fast, secure and functioning internet access.