from Hacker News

Houthis knock out underwater cables linking Europe to Asia

by 015UUZn8aEvW on 2/26/24, 11:17 PM with 47 comments

• by goles on 2/27/24, 1:53 AM

  Hard to find good sources on this.

  Guardian article (Feb 5, 2024), "Houthi-linked Telegram channel published a map of the cables running along the bed of the Red Sea. The image was accompanied by a message: “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.”

  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/05/houthis-may-sa...

  MEMRI publishes word for word quote of above with screenshots of Telegram group (Dec 24, 2023).

  https://www.memri.org/jttm/veiled-threat-telegram-channels-l...

  Today (Feb 26, 2024) @Netblocks posts screenshot of drop in traffic.

  https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1762115571376685524

  Sunil Tagare - Founder & CEO, OpenCables (Feb 25, 2024)

  How can these be repaired? Can it even be done safely? Insurance of operating a specialized boat in these waters? (paraphrasing)

  https://twitter.com/tagaresunil/status/1761859936617959443

• by ChrisArchitect on 2/27/24, 6:09 AM

  Related yesterday:

  Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea.Authorities looking at potential terrorism

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39506931

• by csomar on 2/27/24, 12:09 PM

  Seeing no effect in SEA, are there any reports/dashboards that visualize the state of the global internet connectivity?

• by Communitivity on 2/27/24, 1:03 PM

  This should provoke swift, hard, and overwhelming reactions from G7 countries. The undersea cables have to be inviolate or we'll see this happen all the time, with major negative impacts to internet stability and effective international commerce.

• by DoreenMichele on 2/27/24, 11:38 AM

  Four underwater communications cables between Saudi Arabia and Djibouti have been struck out of commission in recent months...

  Most of the immediate harm will be absorbed by the Gulf states and India, Globes said.

  This is in the Middle East and may or may not be related to the war in Gaza.

  I'm like the worst possible person to do this because I tend to not follow The News and I expect someone to get very upset with me for it. But I will say the world needs peace in the Middle East more than I understood. There is -- or was -- critical infrastructure running through there and this is potentially a big deal globally.

  And that does not mean I am advocating some kind of intervention from other countries. Please don't put words in my mouth in that regard. I'm just saying the ongoing issues there are apparently now becoming a global problem in ways that likely most people would not have predicted.

• by jnaina on 2/27/24, 3:09 AM

  Explains why my Netherlands NZB^h^h^h Usenet server access from Singapore in on the fritz

• by chucke1992 on 2/27/24, 10:45 AM

  Without internet we can go back to the bronze age quite fast.