By Matt Western

Our subsea cables keep the internet running, but we’re too timid in protecting them.

Subsea telecommunications cables run for miles along the seabed, and are about as wide as a garden hose. It is hard to imagine that this vast, hidden network represents the backbone of the global internet.

They carry 99% of the world’s intercontinental telecommunications data - everything from billion-dollar financial transactions to banal WhatsApp messages.

The UK is almost entirely reliant on these internet cables to connect to the outside world. But their physical security can no longer be taken for granted.

As Russia tests NATO resolve and concerns grow about sabotage, the UK’s dependence looks like a strategic vulnerability – and one the Government must address fast.

The........

© LBC