Experts say the EU is vulnerable to attack on its undersea cables

Experts have warned that the EU is vulnerable to attack on its undersea communication cables that are a critical infrastructure in a digital world.

Christian Bueger, professor of International Relations at the University of Copenhagen and Tobias Liebertrau, researcher in political and strategic aspects of cyber security, digitisation and technological development, at Centre de Recherches Internationales (CERI), said the EU can do more to safeguard undersea communication cables.

However, they also conceded that this infrastructure is also the hardest to protect when presenting a report commissioned last year by the European Commission.

An attack on these cables could lead to a communications blackout or the interception of sensitive data which underscores the need to protect them, the experts said.

All EU states depend on the subsea cable network, some states more than others. Malta is no exception, depending on subsea cables belonging to the three communication companies for its communication needs. Malta is also connected via a subsea electricity cable with Sicily.

The experts said the amount of cable connections varies greatly from state to state, and overall there seems to be a lot of redundancy on the EU's network, which is a good thing.

Libertrau said there were three ways subsea cables could be attacked - physically, through tapping or electronically with cyber weapons.

The first method is the most worrisome. “Such attacks can be carried out from civilian vessels and do not require high end capabilities. Improved cutting devices on ships, explosive devices or mines from cargo vessels or attacks with submersibles are possible,” Libertrau said.

The tapping method was seen as less likely by the experts who said there were other easier ways to obtain data. The third way was also of concern, since cyberattacks have been on the rise globally and especially during the war in Ukraine. They feature prominently as a facet of modern “hybrid” warfare and are of concern, the experts said.

Libertrau said attacks are increasingly likely. “We should thus be worried, however, a doomsday scenario of a complete loss of European connectivity Is unrealistic.”

Even so, he said smaller scale symbolic attacks and acts of provocation in light of the growing tensions between Russia and the West are more likely. Libertrau said terrorists and criminal organisations could also exploit these vulnerabilities for different purposes.

Bueger said the key recommendations of his study included raising awareness, sharing information, surveillance, ensuring repair capabilities, and strategic autonomy.

He said more awareness was needed of the threat to the subsea cable network and recommended dedicated training for coastguards on EU level and the founding of a cable resilience coordination group in the European Commission to monitor and coordinate these efforts.

“We need better cable surveillance, the technology is there but none of the organizations that operate have the mandate to do it. Undersea surveillance requires technological advancements though,” he said.

Bueger said repair capability is limited in the EU with companies that operate in the region  having a sort of “club system” with only four ships that all operators contribute to - two for the Atlantic and two for the Mediterranean.

He recommended the EU invest in its own specialised vessels which could be leased to operators in the day to day but would exist as a fallback and emergency resource in a serious scenario.

Bueger also called for harmonization of legal repair regulations across Europe and for this conversation to be folded into the move toward strategic autonomy. ‘Cable diplomacy’ was mentioned, due to the inherent function of these cables sharing data across the world, diplomacy would be vital. The professor cited how Egyptian territory houses cables to Asia and Moroccan territory houses the cables to the south Atlantic.

Libertrau and Bueger also emphasized how this was quite an unknown field. They expressed surprise at how little was known about cable security in member states and equally in terms of academic work on the subject. “The issue sits somewhere between civil maritime enforcement and defence,” they said.

The two experts said the EU needed to take a comprehensive serious approach towards subsea infrastructure.

Recalling the ‘Svalbard incident’ where an undersea cable connecting Norway and an Arctic satellite station was mysteriously damaged, the two experts cited the fact that it had been cut by human activity and that the culprits remain unknown alongside recorded Russian naval activity in the area should be “a wake up call for us all”.