The CSIS report highlights the importance of undersea cables, which carry over 95% of the world's international data. These cables are crucial for global internet connectivity, government communications, and economic activities. The report emphasizes that these cables are vulnerable to threats from countries like China and Russia, which could potentially exploit or sabotage them. It also mentions that China has been expanding its role in the undersea cable industry, which raises concerns for U.S. national security. To address these vulnerabilities, the CSIS report suggests that the U.S. and its allies should invest in building stronger repair and maintenance capacities for these cables, streamline legal processes for cable construction, and enhance international cooperation to protect this critical infrastructure. The goal is to ensure that these vital communication lines remain secure and reliable, especially in the face of growing geopolitical tensions.
A report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) identified the significance of #undersea cables and why they matter. It also explored the #vulnerability of cable systems and the potential for Chinese exploitation; and Russian threats to #underseainfrastructure. The CSIS report also prescribes recommendations to counter undersea great power competition. CSIS detailed that subsea fiber-optic cables are critical information and telecommunications technology (ICT) infrastructure that carry more than 95 percent of international data and are becoming a highly consequential theater of great power competition between the U.S., China, and other state actors such as Russia. As the backbone of global #telecommunications and the Internet, this infrastructure effectively facilitates daily personal use of the Internet and broader societal functions. In addition, sensitive government communications also rely extensively on subsea infrastructure. “While these communications are encrypted, they still pass through commercial internet lines as data traverses subsea infrastructure,” Daniel F. Runde, Erin Murphy, and Thomas Bryja wrote in a CSIS report. “Subsea cables carry a much larger bandwidth and are more efficient, cost-effective, and reliable than satellites; consequently, they have been credited with increasing access to high-speed internet worldwide, fueling economic growth, boosting employment, enabling innovation, and lowering barriers to trade.” #Criticalinfrastucture #Threatlandscape https://lnkd.in/giX9V3-v
