Atlantic Council warns on cable security gaps

A policy report examines security and resilience risks to submarine cables from authoritarian influence, remote management vulnerabilities, and increasing data volumes, urging US government action.

The Atlantic Council published a comprehensive policy analysis examining threats to the global submarine cable infrastructure that carries over 95 percent of intercontinental Internet traffic. The report identifies three primary trends increasing security and resilience risks: authoritarian governments, particularly China, using state-owned and state-influenced companies to reshape the physical topology of the Internet for strategic advantage and potential espionage; the growing adoption of remote network management systems by cable operators, which introduces new operational security vulnerabilities; and the explosive growth in cloud computing driving unprecedented volumes of sensitive data across these cables.

The analysis draws on empirical data from 475 deployed submarine cables and their 383 owning entities worldwide, combined with stakeholder interviews and open-source research. It argues that Chinese state-owned firms like Huawei Marine, China Telecom, and China Unicom have significantly increased both construction and ownership of undersea cables in recent years, creating potential vectors for Beijing to gain control over Internet chokepoints and favorable data routing. The report also highlights historical and contemporary examples of state-sponsored cable tapping, from Cold War-era NSA operations to Russia's targeting of Crimean cables during its 2014 annexation.

The Atlantic Council provides eight specific recommendations for the US government, including giving additional authorities and funding to foreign investment screening committees, promoting baseline security standards for remote cable management systems, increasing FCC resources for interagency cooperation on resilience threats, and encouraging major technology companies to publish cable security strategies. The report frames submarine cable security as an urgent geopolitical issue that has been overshadowed by focus on emerging technologies like 5G, arguing that failure to address these vulnerabilities leaves critical infrastructure exposed to espionage and disruption that could harm both economic and national security.

Source reporting: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/report/cyber-defense-across-the-ocean-floor-the-geopolitics-of-submarine-cable-security