Undersea Cables and Pipelines Face Growing Sabotage Threat, Highlighting Security Gaps
Subsea communication and energy lines are increasingly being damaged, exposing a security weakness that Western governments have been slow to address.
Subsea fiber-optic cables carry the bulk of international internet traffic, and pipelines move critical energy supplies, yet both are becoming frequent targets of sabotage. The piece cites the 2022 Nord Stream explosions, a series of cable cuts in the Baltic Sea—including incidents traced to Chinese-flagged vessels—and repeated damage to Taiwanese links blamed on Chinese ships, as well as Red Sea cable breaks caused by Houthi attacks on shipping.
In the Persian Gulf, Iran’s IRGC has threatened to disrupt cables passing through the Strait of Hormuz, where major lines such as FALCON and Gulf Bridge International run. Although 90-95 % of U.S. government communications rely on privately owned subsea cables, there is no coherent national policy, and officials call for a single federal point of contact and expanded authority for the Pentagon, the intelligence community and the FCC. The article warns that without urgent action, the ocean floor will remain a vulnerable front in global security.
Why it matters
Disruptions to undersea cables and pipelines can cripple internet, finance and energy systems worldwide.
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