Ship's anchor caused cut in Internet cable

By Katarina Kratovac

updated 12:13 p.m. ET Feb. 8, 2008

CAIRO, Egypt - A ship's anchor lying at the bottom of the sea was behind one of two cuts last week in undersea Internet cables around the Middle East that caused dramatic outages across the region and in parts of Asia, the cable-owner company said Friday.

FLAG Telecom said its repair ship managed to recover one end of the cut FALCON cable in the Persian Gulf, 35 miles north of Dubai, between the Emirates and Oman.

At the site, FLAG's repair crew discovered an abandoned anchor which the company said was behind the cut last Friday. The anchor, weighing more than 5 tons, was pulled up to the surface.

It was not immediately clear whether FLAG had any indication what vessel the anchor belonged to, or how such a heavy anchor could have moved to snap the cable or whether the cable itself was drifting and why.

At the time of the cut — the second in three days and involving three separate Internet cables — rough weather was reported in that part of the Gulf.

The unusual cuts led to disruptions in services, slowed down businesses and hampered personal Internet usage. They also caused a flurry of Internet blogger speculation, including mentions of sabotage — allegations authorities and FLAG have refused to comment.

"It is difficult to comment right now on this," said a FLAG spokesman, reached over the telephone. "We are doing our own investigation." He spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with company policy.

Ovum analyst Matt Walker said undersea cable networks are highly vulnerable to deliberate attack and need enhanced security.

"If ports, railways, gas pipelines, and other types of networks are being secured against possible sabotage, we must similarly increase the security of undersea optical highways," said Walker.

The cuts also underlined potential threats that disrupted Internet connectivity could pose to organizations and businesses worldwide. Large-scale Internet disruptions are rare, but East Asia suffered nearly two months of outages and slow service after an earthquake damaged undersea cables near Taiwan in December 2006.

"The economic cost of losing, or even just slowing down, international communications is extremely high," said Walker. "This risk has to be factored into the calculations behind the investment level and design of undersea optical networks."

FLAG said it has fully restored circuits to some customers and switched others to alternative routes.

The FLAG repair ship is trying to reconnect the Persian Gulf cable and repairs are expected to be done by Sunday. Weather conditions have improved and are now moderate, FLAG said.

Meanwhile, a second flag repair ship continued repair work off the north coast of Egypt, where the first undersea cable was cut Jan. 30, some 5.2 miles from the Egyptian port city of Alexandria.

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