[cooperation-wg] cooperation-wg Digest, Vol 71, Issue 1

Hi,

Dr. Starosielski wrote a good book about undersea cables and their
vulnerability. https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-undersea-network

Might be of interest.

best,

On Wed, Dec 6, 2017 at 11:00 AM, <cooperation-wg-request at ripe.net> wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Undersea cables (Gordon Lennox)
>    2. Re: Undersea cables (Julius ter Pelkwijk)
>    3. Re: Undersea cables (Jim Reid)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2017 19:35:17 +0100
> From: Gordon Lennox <gordon.lennox.13 at gmail.com>
> To: Cooperation WG <cooperation-wg at ripe.net>
> Subject: [cooperation-wg] Undersea cables
> Message-ID: <9FE1E343-ECD0-42CE-9B7E-03F731903423 at gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=utf-8
>
> A new report on an old problem.
>
> <<  We must do more to protect the indispensable yet insecure internet
> infrastructure provided by undersea cables, urges Rishi Sunak MP in a new
> report published by Policy Exchange, Undersea Cables: Indispensable,
> insecure.
>
> 97% of global communications and $10 trillion in daily financial
> transactions are transmitted not by satellites in the skies, but by cables
> lying deep beneath the ocean. Undersea cables are the indispensable
> infrastructure of our time, essential to our modern life and digital
> economy, yet they are inadequately protected and highly vulnerable to
> attack at sea and on land, from both hostile states and terrorists.
>
> US intelligence officials have spoken of Russian submarines ?aggressively
> operating? near Atlantic cables as part of its broader interest in
> unconventional methods of warfare. When Russia annexed Crimea, one of its
> first moves was to sever the main cable connection to the outside world.
>
> Undersea cables come ashore in just a few remote, coastal locations. These
> landing sites are critical national infrastructure but often have minimal
> protection, making them vulnerable to terrorism. A foiled Al-Qaeda plot to
> destroy a key London internet exchange in 2007 illustrates the credibility
> of the threat. >>
>
> See:
>
> https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/undersea-cables-
> indispensable-insecure/
>
> And so governments must now do something?
>
> Gordon
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2017 18:51:16 +0000
> From: Julius ter Pelkwijk <pelkwijk at gmail.com>
> To: Gordon Lennox <gordon.lennox.13 at gmail.com>
> Cc: Cooperation WG <cooperation-wg at ripe.net>
> Subject: Re: [cooperation-wg] Undersea cables
> Message-ID:
>         <CAAiMRCT3K=_9MAL18r=jo+2CJ=JTMNKfQ23k51-McqozvmxgtQ at mail.
> gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Hi Gordon,
>
> You mean this one?
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_communications_cable
>
> All you need is a shovel and a big axe, and a lot of patience. If you give
> me enough time I might even be able to find one of those endpoints. Yes,
> the problem exists, and yes, when the internet goes slower than usual there
> will be panic, but from what I know is that these "connections" are more
> robust than people actually think. Its a storm in a glass of water.
>
> Julius
>
> On Tue, Dec 5, 2017 at 7:35 PM Gordon Lennox <gordon.lennox.13 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > A new report on an old problem.
> >
> > <<  We must do more to protect the indispensable yet insecure internet
> > infrastructure provided by undersea cables, urges Rishi Sunak MP in a new
> > report published by Policy Exchange, Undersea Cables: Indispensable,
> > insecure.
> >
> > 97% of global communications and $10 trillion in daily financial
> > transactions are transmitted not by satellites in the skies, but by
> cables
> > lying deep beneath the ocean. Undersea cables are the indispensable
> > infrastructure of our time, essential to our modern life and digital
> > economy, yet they are inadequately protected and highly vulnerable to
> > attack at sea and on land, from both hostile states and terrorists.
> >
> > US intelligence officials have spoken of Russian submarines ?aggressively
> > operating? near Atlantic cables as part of its broader interest in
> > unconventional methods of warfare. When Russia annexed Crimea, one of its
> > first moves was to sever the main cable connection to the outside world.
> >
> > Undersea cables come ashore in just a few remote, coastal locations.
> These
> > landing sites are critical national infrastructure but often have minimal
> > protection, making them vulnerable to terrorism. A foiled Al-Qaeda plot
> to
> > destroy a key London internet exchange in 2007 illustrates the
> credibility
> > of the threat. >>
> >
> > See:
> >
> >
> > https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/undersea-cables-
> indispensable-insecure/
> >
> > And so governments must now do something?
> >
> > Gordon
> >
> >
> >
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2017 19:40:24 +0000
> From: Jim Reid <jim at rfc1035.com>
> To: Gordon Lennox <gordon.lennox.13 at gmail.com>
> Cc: Cooperation WG <cooperation-wg at ripe.net>
> Subject: Re: [cooperation-wg] Undersea cables
> Message-ID: <18AEFBE1-BB4B-4E7E-BD52-F872941C72D2 at rfc1035.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=us-ascii
>
>
>
> > On 5 Dec 2017, at 18:35, Gordon Lennox <gordon.lennox.13 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > And so governments must now do something?
>
> Well, what do you think governments (and others) should do about this?
> [Perhaps they already have taken precautions and aren't going to make that
> public for obvious reasons.] And more importantly, what is or should be the
> role of this WG in those actions?
>
> FWIW these cables get damaged from time to time anyway. ISTR a few years
> ago a ship dropped an anchor in a rather unfortunate location in the
> Mediterranean and that caused interweb traffic between Europe and Asia to
> go via America for a few days until the cable(s) got fixed.
>
> Most countries should have sufficient redundancy in their physical cables
> and landing stations. However that may not be the case for small isolated
> communities that are far away from where cables tend to be installed.
> There's always satellite as a backup I suppose.
>
>
> End of cooperation-wg Digest, Vol 71, Issue 1
> *********************************************
>



-- 
Corinne Cath
Ph.D. Candidate, Oxford Internet Institute & Alan Turing Institute

Web: www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/corinne-cath
Email: ccath at turing.ac.uk & corinnecath at gmail.com
Twitter: @C_Cath
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