Subsea Cable Sabotage: Underwater, Underprotected, and Under Attack!

In September 2025, 15 undersea cables in the Bab el Mandeb Strait (Red Sea) were severed, resulting in increased latency and widespread internet disruptions across the Middle East and South Asia. The incident highlighted our global communications profound reliance on vulnerable subsea infrastructure.

Despite the most recent damage appearing to be accidental, it underscores glaring deficiencies in the international legal framework governing these critical assets. Historically, protections have been limited to the 1884 Convention for the Protection of Submarine Telegraph Cables, and more recently, UNCLOS 1982, which include provisions to prevent willful damage and ensure compensation. However, these regimes suffer from weak jurisdictional reach, limited legal obligations, and inconsistent national implementation—rendering them inadequate deterrents in today’s geopolitical climate.

We recently published a detailed article with Marine Technology News exploring the geopolitical context that makes cables a target for hostile actors and the need for improvements to the international law regime that could provide recourse for States that are affected.