Security concerns grow for critical US-Asia deep-sea cables

Undersea cables are the backbone of globalization in the internet era — running across the ocean and sea floors to link nations and continents on different sides of the world. A 2021 report by Total Telecom puts their number at close to 500, with a combined length of around 1.3 million kilometers (808,000 miles). The numbers have only grown since.

"All of global data exchange flows through these cables," said Johannes Peters, the head of the Center for Maritime Strategy and Security at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel.

"The internet, payment orders, any kind of information you can think of, any kind of spoken communication, it runs almost exclusively through these cables," Peters told DW. "On a global level, we are dependent on them."But these communication networks are increasingly seen as targets for potential sabotage.

The danger has been made plain by an ongoing series of incidents in the Baltic Sea. A study by the Washington University in Seattle found some 10 cables have been severed since 2022, including seven between November 2024 and January 2025, with additional incidents reported this summer.

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