Sabotage? Chinese ship causes turnaround in case of broken submarine cables

The seas lend themselves well to this type of operation because, by nature, “it is more difficult to monitor and control activities there and, therefore, identify suspicious behavior to prevent malicious activities”, highlights Basil Germond, expert in international and maritime security issues. . at Lancaster University.

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Submarine cables represent the main targets. “It’s cheap and very easy to damage them,” notes Christian Bueger. And the effect is guaranteed: as the Internet is considered critical infrastructure, any damage caused to a cable causes a large and costly mobilization to investigate and repair the damage.

However, attacking undersea Internet cables in Europe does not cause considerable damage. “There is a lot of redundancy in the European network”, explains Christian Bueger. In other words, telecom operators provide emergency solutions if a cable is damaged.

As such, the “sabotage” of the C-Lion1 and BCS cables could be a “trial balloon”, according to experts interviewed by France 24. Since the explosions on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in September 2022, European authorities have sought to strengthen cooperation to prevent or combat hybrid operations in this region. Recently, European measures have been taken to combat cases of sabotage.

The speed of the reaction, especially from the Danish authorities, bodes well for the experts interviewed. “This demonstrates that Europe has strengthened its ability to respond quickly to this type of incident, which is crucial to deter bad actors, making it more difficult for them to deny their responsibility”, concludes Basil Germond.