Australia relies on just 15 known undersea cables for 99% of its data flow, vital for defence, global markets, and financial systems. Recent reports of Chinese vessels sabotaging subsea infrastructure in the Taiwan Strait raise serious national security concerns.
Speaking with Sky News Australia, Dr Ian Langford, Executive Director of Security & Defence PLuS, explained why disruption to this infrastructure would have catastrophic consequences.
The country would effectively go dark. There isn’t sufficient space infrastructure for any sort of satellite communication system to replicate just the sheer volume of traffic that moves through our undersea cables and infrastructure.
He also outlined key steps to improve resilience, including onshoring critical data and developing deterrent capabilities to protect undersea infrastructure.
Australia able to be rendered ‘insolvent’ by China through targeting of deep sea cables
Australia relies on just 15 known undersea cables for 99% of its data flow, vital for defence, global markets, and financial systems. Recent reports of Chinese vessels sabotaging subsea infrastructure in the Taiwan Strait raise serious national security concerns.
Speaking with Sky News Australia, Dr Ian Langford, Executive Director of Security & Defence PLuS, explained why disruption to this infrastructure would have catastrophic consequences.
He also outlined key steps to improve resilience, including onshoring critical data and developing deterrent capabilities to protect undersea infrastructure.