American Military And Intelligence Officials Worry That Russians Could Be Planning To Attack Undersea Cables That Carry Most Global Internet Communications
The existence of Russian submarines and spy ships near undersea cables that transmit majority of global internet communications has raise the concern of the US officials that Russian could be setting up to attack those lines in times of conflict, The New York Times forecasted on Sunday.
American military and intelligence officials are worried over the alleged increasing activities by the Russian armed forces around the undersea cables, however, there are still no reports yet of severing lines.
According to reports, the US had detected Russian submarines and spy ships warily operating near the undersea cables' identified routes from the North Sea to Northeast Asia and waters near to the US, Reuters reported on Monday.
Reports revealed that the US Department of Defence is reportedly monitoring these Russian activities near the undersea cables. Aside from that, the US officials reportedly are setting up measures to recover swiftly if the cables are severed.
Rear Adm. Frederick J. Roegge of the Navy's submarine fleet in the Pacific refuses to answer whether the Russians are possibly planning to cut the cables, however, he admits that he worries about what the Russians are doing.
Meanwhile a Navy spokesman in Washington says they are not allowed to disclose further details about the matter.
"It would be a concern to hear any country was tampering with communication cables; however, due to the classified nature of submarine operations, we do not discuss specifics," says Commander William Marks.
In addition, then-project manager of a research task supported by the Department of Defence says the danger is that "any country could cause damage to the system and do it in a way that is completely covert, without having a warship with a cable-cutting equipment right in the area."
"Cables get cut all the time - by anchors that are dragged, by natural disasters," says Michael Sechrist.
Sechrist led a project research for Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He issued a project on the vulnerabilities of the undersea cable system in 2012. Sechrist reveals that the positions of these cables are hardly concealed.
"Undersea cables tend to follow the similar path since they were laid in the 1860s," he says.
