Recently, it was reported that on February 24, the Houthis attacked submarine fiber optic cables near Yemen, blowing up four fiber optic cable systems, including AAE-1, SECOM, the Europe-India Corridor (EIG), and the India-Saudi-French TGN, which will affect communications between Europe, Africa and Asia. If the news is true, it is enough to wake us up to the safety of submarine fiber optic cables.
First, let's understand the importance of submarine fiber optic cables. The Internet, the nerve center of modern society, relies almost entirely on these "information superhighways" for data transmission and information transmission. It is estimated that 90% of the world's data transmission is done via submarine fiber optic cables. These fiber optic cables connect the world and are at the heart of the global internet infrastructure. Once these fiber optic cables are damaged, the consequences are unimaginable, not only leading to network disruption, but also potentially devastating to financial, communications, military and other industries.
Imagine that if the submarine fiber optic cable is cut, the global financial market will be thrown into chaos, the trading system will be paralyzed, and the loss of the international financial market could be as high as $10 trillion per day. This is not only an economic loss, but also a huge threat to the stability of the global economy. In addition, the disruption of global communications will lead to the disruption of cross-border cooperation and exchange,** which will face serious challenges and may lead to chaos in the social order.
Therefore, it is rumored that the Houthis have done this, and the impact is quite large. But why do I say rumors? Because on February 26, the marine communications company responsible for the submarine communication cable (seacom) in eastern and southern Africa officially confirmed that the company did have a signal interruption problem in one of its submarine fiber optic cables in the Red Sea during this time, resulting in the interruption of the fiber optic cable section from Mombasa, Kenya to Zafarana, Egypt. However, they stressed that the cause of the outage could not be confirmed at this time and that they were working with their cable repair partners to assess the feasibility of repairs in the area.
In other words, there has indeed been an interruption of the submarine fiber optic cable on the bottom of the Red Sea in the past few days, but what caused the interruption of the fiber optic cable, and whether someone deliberately cut off the submarine fiber optic cable, the official did not make a clear response, but said that it was still investigating. Based on current information, it is not possible to directly convict the Houthis.
Then follow the source and find something interesting as well.
As early as a few months ago, the West repeatedly issued documents saying that it would not rule out Houthi attacks on submarine fiber optic cables. Very early, the West began to build momentum. Then the news on February 24 was first broken by several Israeli ** such as the "Israel Globe" (Globes) and the "Jerusalem Post", and considering the position of Israel and the Houthis, it cannot be ruled out that this news is an offensive.
Therefore, after perceiving this information, including on the Internet, some people have doubts about whether it was really the Houthis who attacked the submarine fiber optic cable.
If not the Houthis, who would it be?
Some netizens believe that Israel did this in order to prove that the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea are indiscriminate and not just aimed at themselves, so as to divert the contradictions.
Some netizens also believe that the United States actually did it, and the purpose of this is to prove that the submarine fiber optic cable is unreliable, so as to promote the Starlink satellite service.
Although we need more information to confirm whether the Houthis have actually destroyed the submarine fiber optic cable, we must also recognize the importance of the submarine fiber optic cable. Raising public awareness of the importance of fiber optic cables and responding to any situation that may arise is something we can do.