essential Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, submarine cables that connect the continents to the Internet will be under threat of power outages, which led to power outages. Scenario provided by the armed forces.
Along with the nuclear threat, another threat hangs over the European continent: that of an “eclipse” caused by the cutting of transatlantic submarine cables. This threat is not taken lightly by European countries: the disconnection will disconnect our computers, smartphones, tablets, but also Internet servers. However, the entire Internet, in particular financial and economic data, passes through them.
Jean-Luc Wulemen, director of international networks at Orange, told our Tribune colleagues “that in the event of redundancies, there will simply be no more European internet”. The reason ? 99% of the global network passes through these cables.
The world’s network of underwater communication cables. Wikimedia Commons
Submarine cables attacked during the annexation of Crimea
And the threat is taken very seriously by European countries and defense officials. In fact, in 2021, near Ireland, Yantar, an “oceanographic” ship that has a mini-submarine type AS-37 [Projet 16810], managed to dive to a depth of 6000 meters. This spy ship of the Russian Navy followed the route of the Celtic Norse and AEConnect-1 submarine telecommunication cables, which connect Ireland with the United States. However, 97% of global communications and financial transactions go through them.
Russia has already cut submarine cables during the annexation of Crimea. Ukraine also takes the threat seriously. In late February, the deputy prime minister asked billionaire Elon Musk, head of Tesla and SpaceX, to urgently deploy his Starlink satellite network over the country. An emergency solution was then introduced.