Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogel bomb here. Most of us probably don't realize it,
Speaker 1: but much of the infrastructure that makes the Internet possible
Speaker 1: lies on the bottom of the world's oceans, in the
Speaker 1: form of vast networks of fiber optic cables that transmit
Speaker 1: data between countries. Despite the vital role that these cables
Speaker 1: playing global communications, they're largely unguarded because of their location underwater.
Speaker 1: That vulnerability has made some headlines thanks to warnings that
Speaker 1: Russia might sabotage the cables and disrupt connections between the
Speaker 1: US and Europe. The head of the British Defense Establishment
Speaker 1: and chairman of NATO's Military Committee, Air Marshal Sir Stuart Peach,
Speaker 1: recently warned that cutting the cables quote would immediately and
Speaker 1: catastrophically fracture both international trade and the Internet. According to
Speaker 1: The Guardian, peaches warning echoed the conclusions of report written
Speaker 1: by UK Member of Parliament Rishi Sunac, which described the
Speaker 1: potential for disruption of Internet traffic as an x estential threat.
Speaker 1: Sunak noted that the cables, which are largely owned and
Speaker 1: operated by private companies, transmit ten trillion dollars worth of
Speaker 1: financial transfers every day. It's not the first time that
Speaker 1: an alarm has been sounded about the undersea cable networks.
Speaker 1: Report written for the U. S. Department of Homeland Security
Speaker 1: describes the effects of a two thousand eight instant in
Speaker 1: which three cables in the Mediterranean which connected Italy to
Speaker 1: Egypt were severed, apparently accidentally by commercial ships dragging their
Speaker 1: anchors of the Internet. Connectivity between Europe and Middle East
Speaker 1: was temporarily lost. As a result, most of the U. S.
Speaker 1: Air Forces drone aircraft in Iraq were grounded due to
Speaker 1: the lack of a reliable connection to technicians back in
Speaker 1: the United States. The report warned cable breaks halfway across
Speaker 1: the world threaten US vital national security interests. In The
Speaker 1: New York Times reported that a Russian spy ship was
Speaker 1: kept under surveillance by US planes, satellites and ships as
Speaker 1: it cruised slowly down the U s. East Coast close
Speaker 1: to Internet cables. The Russian ship reportedly was equipped with
Speaker 1: two miniature submarines capable of going into deep water to
Speaker 1: cut cables. Another Russian surveillance ship was spotted off the
Speaker 1: coast of Delaware in February, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
Speaker 1: But before you get too caught up in a nightmare
Speaker 1: scenario of the Internet suddenly going dark due to sabotage,
Speaker 1: experts say that the system, despite its lack of defenses,
Speaker 1: is resilient and would be difficult for an enemy nation
Speaker 1: or terrorist group to disable. The fiber cables that transmit
Speaker 1: the world's data are surprisingly slim, measuring less than zero
Speaker 1: point seven inches or about seventeen millimeters in thickness, according
Speaker 1: to Keith Showfield, general manager of the Internet Cable Protection Committee,
Speaker 1: a British based industry group. But the fiber is encased
Speaker 1: in a hermetically sealed tube, which is in turn surrounded
Speaker 1: by layers of high tensile steel wires, copper, and polyethylene.
Speaker 1: For sections in shallower water, where cables are more likely
Speaker 1: to encounter ship anchors and other man made hazards, additional
Speaker 1: layers of armor are sometimes added, or else cables are
Speaker 1: buried under the sea, beat Showfield told as in an email.
Speaker 1: As a result, cables are damaged worldwide only about two
Speaker 1: hundred times a year, which, as he said, is a
Speaker 1: tiny failure rate across a network of well over a
Speaker 1: million kilometers. That's six twenty one thousand miles of cable
Speaker 1: linking people between continents. We also spoke with Jim Hayes,
Speaker 1: president of the Fiber Optic Association, a California based professional
Speaker 1: society that certifies cable network builders and operators, in a
Speaker 1: telephone interview. He said that it would be difficult to
Speaker 1: cut cables in the deep ocean, though a robotic submarine
Speaker 1: equipped with the right tools could pull it off. The
Speaker 1: cable networks are more vulnerable closer to land, where their
Speaker 1: connections are in shallower water and easier to reach. It
Speaker 1: wouldn't take a lot of sophisticated weapons or know how
Speaker 1: to inflict the desired damage, he explained. If you want
Speaker 1: to interrupt communications, you hire a crappy old fishing trawler,
Speaker 1: give them a big anchor, and tell them to drag
Speaker 1: it here. Attacking a cable landing probably wouldn't cause much
Speaker 1: disruption in the US and other technologically advanced countries in
Speaker 1: Europe and East Asia, where there are a multitude of
Speaker 1: other connections that would keep the data flowing. Hayes said,
Speaker 1: they might slow down the Internet in New York City,
Speaker 1: but they're not going to disrupt it. There are other
Speaker 1: routes that get to the same place. They can just
Speaker 1: as easily go west around the world as go east.
Speaker 1: The Internet works that way, but he said that sabotage
Speaker 1: could cause outages in a region such as the Middle
Speaker 1: East where relatively few cables are bunched in places such
Speaker 1: as the Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz. Africa,
Speaker 1: where long stretches of the continent's coast are dependent on
Speaker 1: one or two cables, also has higher vulnerability. Nicole star Celeski,
Speaker 1: an assistant professor of Media culture and Communication at New
Speaker 1: York University and author of the book The Undersea Network,
Speaker 1: explained in an email, Yes, you could disrupt the Internet
Speaker 1: for a lengthy period, but only with certain attacks in
Speaker 1: certain places and others traffic could be easily rerouted. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by Patrick J. Keiger and produced by
Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil. For more on this and lots of other
Speaker 1: tubular topics, visit our home planet, How Stuff Works dot com.