Telecoms cable in Baltic Sea may have been severed, says Finnish owner
GuardianDec 04, 2024
Communication across two fiber optic cables running across the Baltic Sea were disrupted this past week, sparking fears they were intentionally severed by acts of sabotage.German Defense Minister Boris Pistorious has claimed that damage to two undersea data cables since Sunday were "hybrid action[s]" that "no believes... were cut accidentally," describing the act as "sabotage."
The first cable to go down — a 135-mile (218 km) internet link between Lithuania and the Swedish island of Gotland — went offline at roughly 0800 GMT on Sunday, according to a Lithuanian subsidiary of Sweden's Telia Company.
"We can confirm that the internet traffic disruption was not caused by equipment failure but by physical damage to the fiber optic cable," a spokesperson for the firm said.The second cable — a 745-mile (1,200 km) line between Finland's capital of Helsinki to the German port city of Rostock — was disrupted around 0200 GMT on Monday, the Finnish state-controlled cyber security and telecoms company Cinia said.
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