WiredInUSA-December2015

INDEX

Cables under threat? Washington Free Beacon has reported that a US senator believes Russian aggression may pose a threat to subsea communications cables. Russian submarines and spy ships have been caught “aggressively operating” near cables in the last month, prompting concern that Moscow could easily sever the cables and leave entire nations without access to the web.

continuing: “The United States needs to take seriously the growing Russian threat to these cables.” The New York Times reported in October that intelligence officials suggest that: “The ultimate Russian hack on the United States could involve severing the fiber optic cables at some of their hardest-to-access locations to halt the instant communications on which the West’s governments, economies and citizens have grown dependent”. In a letter to the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, Senator Wicker requested that the administration provide lawmakers with a classified brief on the matter.

The matter has been discussed during closed-door briefings between senators and senior officials from Naval Intelligence, the Department of Homeland Security, US European Command, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. “Undersea cables are critical to our economy, our communications, and our national security,” Senator Roger Wicker said in a statement,

wiredInUSA - December 2015

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