Researchers from the U.S., Iceland, Sweden, and Switzerland are working with NATO to build a system that will automatically reroute subsea internet and data traffic to satellites if communication is severed by hostile action, natural calamity, or an accident. According to Bloomberg’s report, most of NATO’s internet traffic uses undersea cables, and their disruption could result in a disaster, especially during the opening days of any attack.
NATO has already been investing in protecting its communications cables, setting up a center that focuses on this mission ever since the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was destroyed by a mysterious explosion in September 2022. NATO’s Science for Peace and Security Programme also allocated over $400,000 to the Hybrid Space and Submarine Architecture project to Ensure Information Security of Telecommunications, or HEIST. It will formally launch at Cornell University in New York in late July 2024.
