Defence secretary reveals month-long Russian submarine operation over cables and pipelines north of UK
UK’s dependency on undersea cables comes with vulnerabilitypublished at 13:32 BST
Frank Gardner
Security correspondent
As an island nation, the UK is especially dependent on its undersea cables and pipelines for its data and for its energy.
More than 90% of our day-to-day internet traffic travels not via satellite, but by these undersea cables.
With that dependency comes a unique vulnerability. There are ‘clusters’ where these cables come ashore from the Atlantic and the North Sea.
These can be monitored, although some would argue not nearly as much as they should be. But it is impossible to monitor every metre of undersea cable that lies at the bottom of the ocean.
The Russian Defence Ministry’s Gugi unit, euphemistically designated as ‘deep sea research’, has developed uncrewed minisubs specially designed to dive to depths of thousands of metres below the surface.
These vessels can be equipped with what are, in effect, giant scissors, capable of cutting cables on the seabed. They can also place monitoring devices that can stay hidden for years.
Charlotte Wilson, Head of Enterprise at Check Point Cybersecurity says what makes this Russian operation more concerning is the level of sophistication involved.
“These aren’t standard submarines, they’re specialist vessels designed for deep sea operations. So this isn’t random movement, it suggests a deliberate effort to understand where critical infrastructure sits and how it behaves. Not only mapping locations but also assessing how resilient those systems are”.
Image caption,
The UK is especially dependant on about 60 undersea cables which connect it to the international network
