From space to the seabed, critical infrastructure is becoming more vulnerable, experts warn: 'People don't realize how dependent we are'

Rows of metallic objects are folded up in a rack high above earth.

Weather forecasts, modern banking, international trade and GPS all depend on a fragile web of infrastructure extending from Earth's orbit to the ocean floor — a web that's largely unseen and, experts warn, increasingly at risk.

At a World Economic Forum discussion in Switzerland last week, space leaders and cybersecurity experts cautioned that the satellites orbiting Earth and the submarine cables crisscrossing the seabed — the hidden lifelines of modern society — are growing more vulnerable even as global reliance on them accelerates.