(Credit: Serg Myshkovsky / Getty Images)
Someone damaged telecommunications cables in the Red Sea, forcing internet providers to reroute as much as 25% of traffic between Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Of the 15 oceanic cables, four have been cut, according to a statement from Hong Kong telecom company HGC Global Communications. Underwater cables are a critical yet vulnerable infrastructure, garnering investments from Meta, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft in the past.
"We have successfully devised a comprehensive diversity plan to reroute affected traffic," HGC says. That involves rerouting traffic through other submarine cables.
HGC has not confirmed who carried out the attack, though just a few weeks ago the Yemeni government warned of the possibility that Houthi rebels would target the cables as part of an ongoing effort to disrupt supply chains in the region. Houthi groups had also been threatening the attack on social media, Bloomberg reports.
Rebel leader Abdel Malek al-Houthi denied the allegations. “We have no intention of targeting sea cables providing internet to countries in the region,” he tells CNN Business. The Houthis blame British and US military units operating in the area for the damage.
“It’s too early to tell if it’s sabotage,” Prenesh Padayachee, chief digital officer of Seacom, which operates one of the cut cables, tells Bloomberg. “Only once we lift the cable will we be able to see if someone has cut it.”
Padayachee says the problem is likely in shallow waters, about 492- to 558-feet deep where Iran-backed Houthi fighters have been striking ships with drones and missiles.
Repairs could take weeks or months, pending permits for the work from the Yemeni maritime authority. The work will also risk exposure to further attacks from Houthi groups, according to Israel-based Globes. The companies may be hard-pressed to find someone willing to take the job, and will likely need to pay them a premium.
In addition to Seacom, other affected companies include TGN, AAE-1, and EIG. AT&T and Verizon are among several major providers with shares in EIG, whose cable cost $700 million to install. TGN's cable was laid on the seafloor in 2001 and sold in 2005 for $130 million.