- The report finds that five island nations are completely dependent on one vulnerable underwater internet cable
- Accidental ship anchoring causes the majority of global submarine cable failures each year
- Smaller island nations remain dangerously vulnerable to complete nationwide internet blackouts
A new report has highlighted how all 48 island nations worldwide, including major economies such as the UK, Japan and Indonesia, rely on just 126 undersea cables for their internet connection.
These cables are often no thicker than a garden hose, making them surprisingly vulnerable to accidental damage or deliberate sabotage.
The International Cable Protection Committee reports 150 to 200 failures of submarine cables each year, with 70 to 80% due to accidental human activities such as anchoring, while the others stem from technical failures, natural disasters or suspected malicious acts that are difficult to prove.
Which island nations are most at risk of being cut off?
To determine the level of vulnerability of these island nations, Comparitech analyzed three factors, including the number of cable connections, fishing activity levels and proximity to active armed conflicts.
The study assigned scores from 0, which represents the least risk, up to 8, which represents the most severe exposure.
New Zealand scored 0 due to having more than 10 different cables, no involvement in armed conflict and relatively modest industrial fishing.
Iceland emerged as the most vulnerable European nation with an overall score of 5. Brunei and Bahrain each scored 6, making them the most vulnerable Asian island nations in the survey.
Five of the smaller, less populated island nations are connected by just a single undersea cable with no backup option.
Tuvalu relies on the 668 kilometer VAKA cable, which is just a spur to a larger regional system.
Nauru’s initial connection feeds into the 2,250-kilometer East Micronesia Cable System, which must connect to other networks to reach Guam.
Kiribati relies heavily on an offshoot of the 13,700 kilometer Southern Cross NEXT cable for all its connectivity needs.
All nations with a single cable are very vulnerable because any interruption of that cable means total blackout for the entire country.
For example, in 2022 Tonga lost nationwide internet access for over five weeks after an undersea volcano severed its only cable connection.
Geopolitical tensions are turning the seabed into a new battlefield
The growing geopolitical sensitivity surrounding undersea cables, along with reported reconnaissance, shows how these systems are increasingly viewed as strategic military assets.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps recently revealed that it had mapped cable locations throughout the Strait of Hormuz, putting regional digital infrastructure at significant risk.
The British military has tracked Russian submarines carrying out reconnaissance on cables in the North Atlantic.
China has successfully tested a cable-cutting device that works at depths of up to 4,000 meters using advanced manned and unmanned underwater vehicles.
Island nations’ vulnerability to undersea cable disruptions is less a question of whether outages will occur and more a question of when and how severely they will be felt.
The connection is highly concentrated and in some cases dependent on single systems or indirect rail branches that do not offer redundancy when problems arise.
While large economies such as the UK or Japan benefit from extensive redundancy and multiple landing sites, smaller and more remote nations remain structurally exposed to complete isolation.
This exposure is compounded by the difficulty of monitoring and protecting infrastructure that spans thousands of kilometers of seabed.
Repair fleets have only four dedicated ships worldwide, while cable ownership is concentrated among a few operators, making new systems too expensive for small nations.
Until smaller nations get alternative connections or dedicated repair vessels, they remain a broken cable from digital darkness, a vulnerability that adversaries are already mapping.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds.
