Underwater electric cable next to Eva Beach on the island of Hvar, Croatia.
(Shutterstock)
Increased Russian naval activity in recent years around deep-sea cables, critical infrastructure of the global internet, has raised concerns that Russia could target them in an attempt to disrupt daily life in the West as the country seeks new means of coercion amid the war in Ukraine. Submarine or submarine cables are fiber optic cables that lay the foundation for global internet connectivity around the world. Cables, often thousands of miles/kilometers long, carry about 95% of international data traffic from country to country by connecting two or more land points across bodies of water. The cables themselves are usually not much wider than a garden hose, and although they are covered in various layers of copper, nylon and plastic for insulation, they are not heavily shielded. Today there are more than 400 submarine cables varying in length, some less than 50 miles…