Defence experts issue warning after undersea internet cables cut off WA coast as ‘suspicious’ vessel lurked

Defence experts warn the suspicious severing of two vital undersea cables off the West Australian coast over the weekend highlights the country’s high vulnerability to being cut off from global internet communication.

The head of SUBCO, which owns several of Australia’s key optical fibre links, revealed the Indigo West and Indigo Central systems were damaged amid “some very suspicious activity from a vessel near the location”.

“Remarkably this also happened in the Submarine Cable Protection Zone off Perth Australia. Coincidently some suspicious/coincidental activity from a vessel near the location and timing of the shunts occurring,” SUBCO founder Bevan Slattery said.

“This is a concerning development. Partially because submarine cables are the digital lifeblood of our nation, but also because this this could very well turn out to be the second such incidence in a Federally declared cable protection zone.”

Former Defence official Michael Shoebridge, now with Strategic Analysis Australia, says many people are unaware that fewer than 20 links carry around 99 percent of Australia’s internet traffic.

“Some people think that satellites move a lot of the internet information, but satellites move about 1 per cent of the internet,” he explained.

“The rest goes through these undersea cables, and Australia doesn’t have many of them connecting us to the rest of the world. Between 16 and 18 cables are what connect us and make the internet work for Australia.”

The Albanese government has so far not commented on the incident, but a new academic report has warned Australia and countries across the Indo-Pacific face a growing threat of attacks on submarine cables that could devastate their economies.

The defence funded report by the National Security College at the Australian National University, warns that submarine cables face “growing threats from state and non-state adversaries” and urges nations to take urgent steps such as improving their monitoring and repair capabilities.

“Major disruptions to submarine cables can have immediate and severe economic impacts, disrupting financial markets, halting international trade, and severing cloud-based services,” the report says.

“Australia lacks a comprehensive strategy to properly protect and govern its submarine cable networks,” the report says, urging the country to ensure that it can swiftly repair cables and have priority access to repair capabilities.

In an address to this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Defence Minister Richard Marles, warned that the seabed was “becoming a battlefield”.

“We have been slow, collectively slow, to recognise (submarine cables) as the strategic targets they have become,” he said at the annual defence and security forum in May.