Undersea cable breaches

TsrJoe

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Deliberate damage ?

www.thenational.scot

Major incident declared on Shetland as communications to islands shut down

COMMUNICATIONS to Shetland have been completely shut down after a subsea cable was damaged.
www.thenational.scot www.thenational.scot

www.telegraph.co.uk

Shetland cut off from mainland after undersea cable damaged

Police declare major incident as phone lines and internet connections go down across Scottish island
www.telegraph.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Damaged cable leaves Shetland cut off from mainland

Police have declared a major incident with phone lines and internet down on the islands.
www.bbc.co.uk

Submarine Cable Map

TeleGeography's comprehensive and regularly updated interactive map of the world's major submarine cable systems and landing stations.
www.submarinecablemap.com www.submarinecablemap.com
 

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TsrJoe said:
Deliberate damage ?

www.thenational.scot

Major incident declared on Shetland as communications to islands shut down

COMMUNICATIONS to Shetland have been completely shut down after a subsea cable was damaged.
www.thenational.scot www.thenational.scot

www.telegraph.co.uk

Shetland cut off from mainland after undersea cable damaged

Police declare major incident as phone lines and internet connections go down across Scottish island
www.telegraph.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Damaged cable leaves Shetland cut off from mainland

Police have declared a major incident with phone lines and internet down on the islands.
www.bbc.co.uk

Submarine Cable Map

TeleGeography's comprehensive and regularly updated interactive map of the world's major submarine cable systems and landing stations.
www.submarinecablemap.com www.submarinecablemap.com
Click to expand...
Could be, or someone dragging an anchor across the cable - similar to what happened off California last year.
 
TomS said:
starviking said:
Could be, or someone dragging an anchor across the cable - similar to what happened off California last year.
Click to expand...

Accidental breaks aren't that rare, but Shetland is in a particularly precarious position.
Click to expand...

Could just be a trawler. Cutting off the Shetlands doesn't seem like a move with many strategic benefits.

1666270906680.png
 
jeffb said:
Could just be a trawler. Cutting off the Shetlands doesn't seem like a move with many strategic benefits.
Click to expand...

Playing Devil's Advocate, you could read it as a message being sent -- no immediate strategic implications, but a reminder that the capability exists and can be used on more strategic targets.

OTOH, more strategic targets tend to have a lot more redundancy in their communications routing.

Personally, I tend to believe it's an accident, but I have no inside knowledge.
 
20 October 2022 break with UK. mainland and Shetland Is. subsea data cables, concurrently repairs to another undersea cable connecting the Shetland and Faroe Is. are reportedly ongoing after it was also damaged last week.

I hadn't realised just how vulnerable such communications links are, hmm, no need for anything 'high tech' to disrupt them and easily deniable too
 
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TomS said:
jeffb said:
Could just be a trawler. Cutting off the Shetlands doesn't seem like a move with many strategic benefits.
Click to expand...

Playing Devil's Advocate, you could read it as a message being sent -- no immediate strategic implications, but a reminder that the capability exists and can be used on more strategic targets.
Click to expand...

Playing Devil's advocate, has anyone noticed any issues with GPS in the far north of the UK? Maybe the trawler thought he was somewhere else.
 
IIRC, Dallas / Ft. Worth has had a 30+ hr GPS outage that sent the airport back to non-GPS systems.

AFAIR, as yet, no apparent cause...
 
Nik said:
IIRC, Dallas / Ft. Worth has had a 30+ hr GPS outage that sent the airport back to non-GPS systems.

AFAIR, as yet, no apparent cause...
Click to expand...

Sure, but there have been other similar incidents, like one at Newark that was traced to a truck driver jamming his employer's onboard GPS tracker. Nothing about the DFW interference yells enemy action to me.

PMN1 said:
”Zscaler has reported an internet sea cable cut, the cut is south of France and has impacted subsea cables connecting Asia, Europe, and the United States.
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See, now I really want to see how frequent such cuts are when we're not all paying attention to them. There is a huge risk of perception bias/frequency illusion when looking at incidents like this.

www.wired.co.uk

Ever wondered how underwater cables are laid? We take a trip on the ship that keeps us online

WIRED goes on board Orange Marine's Le Pierre de Fermat ship that helps to keep the internet online
www.wired.co.uk www.wired.co.uk

The breaks happen surprisingly frequently. "There's a cable fault somewhere in the world twice a week," Tim Stronge, vice president of Telegeography, which creates giant undersea cable maps, tells WIRED. He says the majority of cable breaks are caused by humans and happen in fishing areas where boats and trawlers accidentally snag or rip the light-carrying cables open. Although Stronge says it is not unheard of for storms and underwater earthquakes to cause faults.
Click to expand...
 
The geological processes known as turbidites were first identified when a series of subsea telegraph cables were cut in the area of the Grand Banks in 1929.

Don't think Shetland is known for such events, but you never know. Chercher le seismic event?

Chris
 
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About a decade ago, IIRC, there was a big fuss in UK when truck & van drivers began using el-cheapo jammers to mung their tracking systems. Depending on proximity, any passing sat-nav would freeze or, worse, freeze then jump. Which was bad, especially at junctions / slips etc.

Discussions on several tech forums reported an easy way to nail such jammers: Motorways etc already had traffic cameras for spotting problems and flagging rogue number plates. All such needed was a 'tethered' GPS module that would trigger recording / highlight if 'reported location' suddenly vanished or otherwise changed. A moving jammer would leave a 'bread-crumb' trail of hits. And, given the 'churn' of vehicle positions in traffic, would only need a few hits to eliminate 'possibles' and identify perp...

I don't know if such 'tethered' GPS modules were installed, or were side-stepped by mobile ANPR and other police units responding to their GPS glitching, but a spate of prosecutions meant jammers became much less of a nuisance...
 
Nik said:
About a decade ago, IIRC, there was a big fuss in UK when truck & van drivers began using el-cheapo jammers to mung their tracking systems. Depending on proximity, any passing sat-nav would freeze or, worse, freeze then jump. Which was bad, especially at junctions / slips etc.

Discussions on several tech forums reported an easy way to nail such jammers: Motorways etc already had traffic cameras for spotting problems and flagging rogue number plates. All such needed was a 'tethered' GPS module that would trigger recording / highlight if 'reported location' suddenly vanished or otherwise changed. A moving jammer would leave a 'bread-crumb' trail of hits. And, given the 'churn' of vehicle positions in traffic, would only need a few hits to eliminate 'possibles' and identify perp...

I don't know if such 'tethered' GPS modules were installed, or were side-stepped by mobile ANPR and other police units responding to their GPS glitching, but a spate of prosecutions meant jammers became much less of a nuisance...
Click to expand...
Total aside, but when radar gun jammers became popular, a GB businessman on a trip through NI and the RoI found himself at the business end of a fair few SA80s when he unwisely left it on when approaching the Army checkpoint in Crossmaglen…
 
The truckers used to call each a “judge” for some reason..now the term is for detectors.

A thin wire antenna between two vehicles might be less noticeable? Don’t know how workable.
 

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