Australia’s digital ‘arteries’ vulnerable to attack
Australia’s vulnerability to attacks on undersea cables through which internet traffic flows was highlighted by the deputy prime minister at the Asian security summit.
At the same time, Australia’s defense minister, Richard Marles, noted “historically unprecedented” attacks on critical infrastructure on the ocean floor.
“It is noteworthy that many cables have been severed across the Baltic and Taiwan Strait since November 2024,” he said at the 2026 Shangri-La Dialogue, without leveling blame against individual countries.
“Maybe these were accidents,” he added at a Singapore defense meeting on Saturday.
“But even if they do, it highlights the vulnerability of this important part of the world’s infrastructure.”
With nearly 99 per cent of the internet in Australia flowing through just 15 undersea cables, Mr Marles said Australia was among the countries most exposed to this “documented pattern of behaviour” in the world.
Pacific island countries were even more vulnerable because they were often served by a single cable.
“These cables are literally the arteries of modern civilization,” he said.
“Our financial systems, our health systems, our communications, our intelligence partnerships, our ability to operate as a modern economy and a functioning state: all of these are critically dependent on infrastructure that is exposed, immobile and – as we have seen evidenced in the Baltics – can be cut off with a hoe in the middle of the night.”
Australia’s dependence on undersea cables has been described as an “Achilles’ heel” by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute; The cables converge at several landing points, and many follow similar routes, making them vulnerable to attacks from multiple lines simultaneously.
Australia’s growing reliance on AI tools and the resulting demand for high-speed, reliable internet connectivity leaves the country even more vulnerable to undersea cable disruptions.
