Friday, November 22

Two fiber-optic cables were damaged in the Baltic Sea earlier this week, sparking suspicion from affiliated European governments.

On Sunday, a fiber-optic cable connecting Lithuania and Sweden was found to be severed, while a second cable connecting Finland and Germany was damaged on Monday. Fiber-optic cables are wires that consist of long, thin strands of glass or plastic within a protective tube. The material inside the casing is used to transmit encoded light pulses at the speed of light, allowing for quick, easy transportation of signals. While it is widely believed that signals are transmitted through satellites, that is actually a common misconception. There are over 930,000 miles of fiber-optic cables across the seafloor that carry over 95% of the world's international data and voice transfers, including emails, texts, and financial transactions. Due to this, fiber-optics are the true backbone of world communication, and any damage to a major cable can have major repercussions.

Thankfully, the severed cables were not an integral part of the communications of the aforementioned countries, with minimal effect. Internet speeds in Lithuania were temporarily slowed down before the online traffic was redirected, but there was very little effect on internet connection in Germany, Finland, and Sweden.

The severing of two cables in the Baltic Sea on Sunday and Monday led to serious skepticism from officials in the affected countries, with strong beliefs that the damage was due to sabotage. Fiber-optic cables are covered in a protective layer of steel wire and have no components that may serve as food sources to animals, making the probability of an animal damaging a wire extremely unlikely. Anchors from ships can be a problem, though, as cargo ships dragging their anchors can sever buried cables on the seafloor. Boris Pistorius, Germany's minister of defense, clearly told media that they believed the damage was sabotage and enforced his belief that it was not a ship anchor, but he avoided explicitly mentioning a suspect of the sabotage.

Russia has been a primary country of worry to western powers lately due to NATO's support of Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War, making them a prime suspect. Russia could easily take action against other countries by taking down external items without directly striking the country itself, causing chaos due to internet disruptions. China has also been involved in past incidents involving fiber-optics and are another country who hold a grudge against NATO, making them a primary suspect as well. However, there is no evidence to show that Russia, China, or any other country is liable for the severing of these cables-- in fact, there is no evidence to prove that the incident was sabotage, either.

This is known as hybrid warfare, and concerns over the vulnerability of fiber-optic cables, which have almost no defenses, have been rising in recent years. The United States in particular has been extremely worried about this, as the country's isolated location means that damage to a fiber-optic cable thousands of miles away could heavily impact them. In addition, the remote areas which those cables are in means that it could take days, even weeks, to repair a damaged cable.

Fact of the Day (Reader's Digest): When dragonflies mate, their tails coincidentally make a heart shape.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): A lie can only make a temporary sense. The truth is permanent and lasts forever. (Michael Bassey Johnson)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Tenacious (adj)- Something described as tenacious cannot easily be stopped or pulled part; in other words, it is firm or strong. Tenacious can also describe something—such as a myth—that continues or persists for a long time, or someone who is determined to do something.

In a Sentence: Caleb was surprised by the crab’s tenacious grip.