“The Web beneath the Waves” is the title of a book by Samanth Subramanian, which is nothing short of frightening, when you consider the vulnerability of the current system of communications on which we all depend. Ninety-nine per cent (99%) of the world’s internet traffic runs on 1.4 million kilometers of fiber-optic cables sitting on the ocean floor. These cables are mostly about the size of a regular garden hose and are almost entirely unprotected. That is a catastrophic disaster waiting to happen.
The author was inspired to write this small book – only 128 pages – by volcanic events in Tonga, in the south Pacific Ocean. In January 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted with the force of a nuclear bomb, sending a plume of ash nearly 60 kilometers into the sky. For the island nation of Tonga, 65km away, an eerie silence followed. The sole undersea communication cable connecting it to the rest of the world had been snapped by an underwater avalanche from the volcano. Tongans could not text loved ones to say they were unharmed; banks shut down; hospitals could not transfer patient records; and pilots had to fly blind; among a multitude of other disruptions. The Island’s subscription for a satellite-backup system had lapsed and, with no internet connection, it could not be renewed.
Samanth Subramanian argues that, in reality, we all live on Tonga, but most of us haven’t realised it yet. Our vulnerability to natural disasters, geopolitical and commercial interference is frightening and real.
Russia’s recent activities in the Baltic involving “shadow fleet” tankers “accidently” dragging their anchors across undersea pipeline and cables is just one example of that vulnerablility.
Subramanian notes that modern maps of fiber-optic cables look uncannily similar to those of imperial-era telegraph cables, partly because of historical and political reasons, but also because those routes are known to be safe, avoiding jagged rocks and seismic activity. However, that also means that anyone with bad intentions, such as Russia and China, can easily find out where all those cables and pipelines are located. Aside from Russia’s nefarious activities in the Baltic, and her well-documented “fishing” vessels apparently mapping undersea cables and pipelines around the British Isles, China has also engaged in similar activities, with “errant” anchors on Chinese ships sailing around Taiwan, causing substantial black-outs. Those crude destructive methods have also now evolved into more direct sabotage, with cables being cut or tapped into by divers from submarines. 1.4 million kilometers of “garden hose” gives the bad guys lots of room to “play”, and makes those activities almost impossible to monitor, let alone counter. It is a massive international problem that is currently hidden from the general public, mostly through benign ignorance of our real vulnerability.
Some good news exists: Sweden has developed a new submarine, called the A26. It is small, only 66 meters long, but it has a portal in the bow that allows the deployment of drones, divers and sensors. Poland, for example, has just contracted to buy three of these vessels at a cost of 2.8 million dollars.
Traditionally, the undersea cable and pipeline industry has been marked by international cooperation and multinational collaboration. However, rogue nations with sea-going capabilities and, perhaps surprisingly, the possibility of huge tech industry competition/wars because that industry uses huge volumes undersea networks, all point to a future where our very lives, and possible existence, on a daily basis, can be affected in a very serious way.
International treaties only work if everyone is willing to obey the rules and, unfortunately in this day and age, obeying rules seems to subject to convenience and whim rather a willingness to conform for the common good.
This small book is a huge warning, and wake-up call.
