Undersea cables pose a security danger, expert says Created: 11/15/2010 5:37:34 PMA massive set of internet cables beneath the ocean needs to be revamped in case of a crisis, a security expert says. The current structure of undersea cables too easily becomes bottlenecked, he says, which could cause a catastrophe during a crisis.
“At the national level, it’s been implemented - the most important communications get through. But other countries don’t have the capability to communicate across borders [in an emergency],” said Karl Rauscher, a distinguished fellow at the EastWest Institute, to SecurityNewsDaily.
According to Rascher, the internet has several “geographical choke points,” locations where undersea cables receive so much traffic that the information gets backed up or stopped. He singled out three locations in particular - Luzon Strait near Taiwan, the Strait of Malacca and the Red Sea. If any of these cables were to be compromised by a natural disaster or an attack, worldwide communications would be in jeopardy.
According to Rauscher, international networks need to revamp and restructure their undersea cables to prevent a disastrous logjam in the future.
Recently, FibreCo announced its plans to build a 12,000 km fiber-optic network, which its CEO, Arif Hussain, says he hopes will help prevent international internet bottlenecks.
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