Nov 21, 2024 13:30:00

Danish Navy seizes Chinese ship to investigate damage to Baltic submarine cables, but cable cut has little impact on internet

The Danish Navy has seized a Chinese ship suspected of involvement in the incident in which submarine cables connecting Lithuania and Sweden and submarine cables connecting Finland and Germany were successively cut between November 17 and 18, 2024.

Danish navy shadows Chinese ship in Baltic sea sabotage probe

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/danish-navy-shadows-chinese-ship-in-baltic-sea-sabotage-probe/ar-AA1unU66

Danish Navy Stopped a Chinese Ship Suspected of Damaging Undersea Cables | Defense24.com
https://defence24.com/armed-forces/danish-navy-stopped-a-chinese-ship-suspected-of-damaging-undersea-cables

YI PENG 3, Bulk Carrier - Details and current position - IMO 9224984 - VesselFinder
https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/9224984

Resilient Internet connectivity in Europe mitigates impact from multiple cable cuts
https://blog.cloudflare.com/resilient-internet-connectivity-baltic-cable-cuts/

At around 10:00 a.m. local time on November 17, 2024, the undersea cable connecting Sventoji, Lithuania and Kattamalsvik, Sweden, shown by the purple line in the figure below, was cut, and in the early morning of the following day, the 18th, the undersea cable connecting Helsinki, Finland and Rostock, Germany, shown by the blue line in the figure below, was cut.

The details of the incident are as follows: The cutting of both undersea cables was pointed out as a possible act of sabotage.

Undersea cable connecting Finland and Germany damaged, possibility of sabotage by someone emerges, but the cause is unknown - GIGAZINE

The Swedish Navy immediately dispatched troops to the scene of the incident and began an investigation. On the 19th, Sweden's Minister of Civil Defense Karl Oskar Bohlin said, 'We have identified a ship that matches the time and location of the two communications cables being cut,' and announced that the Chinese-flagged cargo ship 'Yi Peng 3' had come under investigation.

The voyage path of the 'YI PENG 3' is shown in red arrows on the diagram above. It departed from Russia's Ust-Luga port in the Gulf of Finland on the afternoon of November 15, 2024, and crossed the Baltic Sea by the evening of the 18th.

On November 19, 2024, the YI PENG 3 was seized by the Danish Navy and has been

stationed in the Kattegat Strait for two days since then.

Cloudflare announced that the two undersea cable cuts had little impact on the internet, citing 'the high redundancy and resilience of Europe's internet infrastructure,' and

that Finland, in particular, is connected to more than 10 undersea cables, which greatly supported the resilience of the connection.

However, network researcher Emile Aben warned that 'only in hindsight will we know whether the Internet is resilient enough,' and that 'it's unclear whether it will be similarly resilient in the event of another undersea cable cut in the future.'

Continued

Investigators suspect that the Chinese vessel Yipeng 3 intentionally dragged its anchor for more than 160 km to cut undersea cables in the Baltic Sea, possibly on Russian orders - GIGAZINE