Russian ships spotted near UK internet cables in Atlantic

[Northern Monkey]

They might cut us off using unconventional warfare apparently.

Russia could pose a major threat to the UK and other Nato nations by cutting underwater cables essential for international commerce and the internet, the chief of the British defence staff, Sir Stuart Peach, has warned.

Russian ships have been regularly spotted close to the Atlantic cables that carry communications between the US and Europe and elsewhere around the world.

Air Chief Marshall Peach, who in September was appointed chair of the Nato military committee, said Russia had continued to develop unconventional warfare. He added that threats such as those to underwater cables meant the UK and its allies had to match the Russian navy in terms of modernising its fleet.




https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/14/russia-could-cut-off-internet-to-nato-countries-british-military-chief-warns

[Kizzy]

They might cut us off using unconventional warfare apparently.

Russia could pose a major threat to the UK and other Nato nations by cutting underwater cables essential for international commerce and the internet, the chief of the British defence staff, Sir Stuart Peach, has warned.

Russian ships have been regularly spotted close to the Atlantic cables that carry communications between the US and Europe and elsewhere around the world.

Air Chief Marshall Peach, who in September was appointed chair of the Nato military committee, said Russia had continued to develop unconventional warfare. He added that threats such as those to underwater cables meant the UK and its allies had to match the Russian navy in terms of modernising its fleet.




https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/14/russia-could-cut-off-internet-to-nato-countries-british-military-chief-warns

'How can we justify more defence spending when there's 15,000 homeless and crippling austerity?'....

'oh tell them something about Russians, that'll keep them quiet!'

[arista]

not a real problem, yet.........................................

[bots]

Countries always play games with each other, we do the same back to them, to pretend its one sided is naive. Russia are not a trustworthy nation, we should always be on our guard

[Scarlett.]

Wouldn't it also cut off their access to the US? Given they likely use the same cables?

[Toy Soldier]

I presume it's to disrupt the connections between the US and Europe specifically? Would it actually cut all access though? Couldn't you bounce round the other way... Like go through a proxy in mainland Europe, then maybe India, South East Asia, NZ, then across to the west coast of the US or Southern American countries THEN the US if necessary? I mean it would slow you down a lot but you'd still get a connection.


Or is the US's global access wholly reliant on cables in the Atlantic? If so then this seems like it must be more about the US / Russia than the UK. Although it would cause some pretty major global problems as a large number of nameservers are US based I think.

[bots]

I presume it's to disrupt the connections between the US and Europe specifically? Would it actually cut all access though? Couldn't you bounce round the other way... Like go through a proxy in mainland Europe, then maybe India, South East Asia, NZ, then across to the west coast of the US or Southern American countries THEN the US if necessary? I mean it would slow you down a lot but you'd still get a connection.


Or is the US's global access wholly reliant on cables in the Atlantic? If so then this seems like it must be more about the US / Russia than the UK. Although it would cause some pretty major global problems as a large number of nameservers are US based I think.

It's not that simple, its also about bandwidth and response times. Any loss of access routes to the UK would be pretty catastrophic