"Undersea Cable Sabotage Risk Exposes Global Digital Vulnerabilities"
Subsea cable
fibre-optic cable laid on the ocean floor carrying international data and voice traffic.
Consortium
a group of telecom and content firms that jointly fund and manage a cable system.
Subsea cables are fibre-optic lines laid along ocean floors that form the backbone of global digital connectivity, carrying international voice, data and financial traffic. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), all states enjoy the freedom to lay and maintain submarine cables on the high seas, but no single authority is responsible for policing or protecting them once laid. India's own legal framework for protecting digital infrastructure rests on the Information Technology Act, 2000, whose Section 70A empowers the government to notify Critical Information Infrastructure and created the NCIIPC as the nodal protection agency. This framework was built primarily around servers and networks, not the physical undersea backbone those networks depend on. As global data flows have grown, cable systems have shifted from a public-utility model toward an increasingly privatised structure dominated by telecom consortiums and, more recently, large technology firms.
Historically, cable systems were built and owned by consortiums: groups of telecom operators, cable manufacturers and content companies that jointly financed a cable and decided its route, landing sites and capacity. Three manufacturers, Alcatel Submarine Networks (France), SubCom (US) and NEC (Japan), have built roughly 90% of the world's deployed cable length, giving a handful of firms outsized influence over how global connectivity is physically laid down. As hyperscalers, cloud and content companies operating at massive scale, expanded their own data needs (accelerated further by AI workloads that demand constant fresh data transmission rather than one-time cached content), they moved from being minority consortium partners to primary owners and financiers of new cable routes. …
What are the maritime security challenges in India? Discuss the organisational, technical and procedural initiatives taken to improve the maritime security.
Discuss the potential threats of Cyber attack and the security framework to prevent it.
Why is maritime security vital to protect India's sea trade? Discuss maritime and coastal security challenges and the way forward.
Consider the following statements regarding subsea (submarine) communication cables:
1.They carry over 99% of the world's internet data traffic.
2.Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), all states have the freedom to lay submarine cables on the high seas.
3.The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) owns and directly operates most of the world's subsea cable network.
How many of the above statements are correct?
With reference to the protection of Critical Information Infrastructure (CII) in India, consider the following statements:
1.The National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) was established under Section 70A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
2.NCIIPC functions under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Match List-I (Subsea cable manufacturer) with List-II (Home country):
List-I:
A.Alcatel Submarine Networks
B.SubCom
C.NEC
List-II:
1.Japan
2.United States
3.France
Select the correct answer using the codes below:
The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) envisages connectivity through which of the following?
1.Rail and shipping links connecting India, the Gulf and Europe
2.Undersea cables and energy pipelines for digital and energy connectivity
Select the correct answer using the codes below:
In the context of global digital infrastructure, the term 'hyperscaler' refers to:
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