 "How Houthi attacks in Red Sea could disrupt internet across the world")
Houthi attacks in the Red Sea may have a surprising new victim – internet users.
According to several reports, undersea data cables in the Red Sea have been damaged in attacks by the Iran-backed outfit.
This comes a month after Yemen’s UN-recognised government in Aden said the Houthis had threatened to damage the crucial cables that link Asia and Europe.
But what happened? And could it lead to internet disruption?
Let’s take a closer look:
First, let’s take a look at the undersea cables.
According to the Wall Street Journal, most of the internet traffic between Europe and East Asia goes through cables laid at the southern end of the Red Sea.
According to the newspaper, traffic from passing ships has long been considered a risk to the cables.
But now Houthi attacks have made the area even more perilous.
On Monday, cables belonging to four major telecom networks were “cut”, CNN reported.
The Europe India Gateway, which stretches 15,000 kilometers between Europe, West Asia and India, has been impacted.
The 25,000-kilometer Asia-Africa-Europe cable system, which hooks up South East Asia to Europe via Egypt, was also damaged.
The outlet quoted Hong Kong telecoms firm HGC Global Communications as saying West Asian communication networks have witnessed “significant disruptions.”
Impact Shorts
View AllThe company said 25 per cent of traffic between Asia and Europe including West Asia has been impacted.
The company said it is rerouting traffic to minimise disruption and is also “extending assistance to affected businesses.”
It did not say who was responsible for the outage.
According to Techspot.com, the cables account for 17 per cent of the world’s internet traffic.
The damage is said to be “significant, but not critical.” thanks to the many other cables in the region.
According to the website, repair work could take a minimum of eight weeks. Those assigned the job could also face attack by the Houthis.
This isn’t the first time this such an outage has occurred.
‘Too early to tell if sabotage’
According to the Wall Street Journal three cables suddenly stopped providing service to some markets on 24 February.
While no region was left online, services in India, Pakistan and parts of East Africa were affected, the newspaper quoted research firm Kentik’s director Doug Madory as saying.
While the cause of the incident wasn’t mention, some experts said the cargo ship Rubymar which came under Houthi attack on 18 February was likely to blame.
The ship, which dropped anchor, was seen adrift in the region.
Bloomberg quoted South African company Seacom Ltd as saying the problem was in an area where the Houthis were attacking ships with missiles and drones.
“It’s too early to tell if it’s sabotage,” Seacom Chief Digital Officer Prenesh Padayachee said.
“Only once we lift the cable will we be able to see if someone has cut it.”
According to Techspot.com, in December a Houthi-linked channel put out a map of the cables on the Red Sea Bed.
“There are maps of international cables connecting all regions of the world through the sea. It seems that Yemen is in a strategic location, as internet lines that connect entire continents – not only countries – pass near it,” the message read.
But the Houthi-backed telecom ministry in San’a said it wasn’t responsible.
It said the government is “keen to keep all submarine telecom cables…away from any possible risks."
The ministry did not comment on the Rubymar attack.
CNN quoted Israeli news outlet Globes as saying it is possible that the Houthis were behind the damage to the cables.
But Yemeni rebel leader Abdel Malek al-Houthi has contested any such claim.
“We have no intention of targeting sea cables providing internet to countries in the region,” he said.
To be fair, the overwhelming majority of damage to undersea cables is due to fishing equipment or anchors, according to Bloomberg.
Also, according to BBC, the fibres that were “cut” lie well on the sea bed – no easy feat for divers to reach.
What do experts say?
Experts say to take any reported threats by the Houthis with a pinch of salt.
“I assess it’s a bluff, unless it’s an attack on a terminal,” former Royal Navy submarine commander Rear Admiral John Gower said.
“It would need an ally with the capability, [someone with] a submersible plus the ability to locate [the cables].”
There is nothing I’ve seen in the Iranian orbat (Order of Battle) that could touch these cables, certainly not their submarines,” former Royal Navy Commander Tom Sharpe added.
“Diving is an option but it’s deep and busy so I think it would be pushing it,” he says. “I think this is a bluff.”
But these incidents shine a spotlight on the possible risks to undersea cables in the Red Sea.
In November, internet access across the war-torn nation of Yemen collapsed and stayed down for hours.
Officials later claimed “maintenance work” was responsible for the outage.
The interruption was YemenNet, the country’s main provider for about 10 million users which is ironically now controlled by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthis.
Both NetBlocks, a group tracking internet outages, and the internet services company CloudFlare reported the outage. The two did not offer a cause for the outage.
“Data shows that the issue has impacted connectivity at a national level as well,” CloudFlare said.
In a statement to the Houthi-controlled SABA state news agency, Yemen’s Public Telecom Corp. blamed the outage on maintenance.
“Internet service will return after the completion of the maintenance work,” the statement quoted an unidentified official as saying.
The undersea FALCON cable carries the internet into Yemen through the Hodeida port along the Red Sea for TeleYemen. The FALCON cable has another landing in Yemen’s far eastern port of Ghaydah as well, but the majority of Yemen’s population lives in its west along the Red Sea.
GCX, the company that operates the cable, later issued a statement also saying that “scheduled maintenance took place” involving the line.
With inputs from agencies
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