Cinia reports that the C-Lion1 submarine cable is fully restored: https://www.cinia.fi/en/news/c-lion1-submarine-cable-fully-restored
#infrastructure #telecoms #telecommunications #clion1 #underseacable
The #EagleS shipping company tried to challenge the ship's impounding today but court upheld the action while investigation continues.
Three companies: the state owned Fingrid and Cinia, and the private Elisa, owners of #Estlink #CLion1 and one of the other telco fibers have filed for impoundment to cover cable repair costs (which will exceed the value of the ship and its gasoline cargo).
Eight crew members suspected are under travel restriction.
https://yle.fi/a/74-20134655
President Stubb in his press briefing:
The first time one year ago [#balticconnector #NewnewPolarBear] the ship was able to leave without being stopped. One month ago the second ship [#YiPeng3 #clion1] was stopped but not brought to national waters. This time [#Estlink #EagleS] Finnish authorities were able to assume control and begin a criminal investigation.
It appears that Russia has figured out a secondary function for their grey fleet: Hybrid warfare.
They create a "shipping company" to some country outside of the sanctions. The company likely has only a single asset: the vessel itself. The vessels are very old and in poor condition and have no insurance. A crew is hired to operate the vessel.
Normally these vessel are used to circumvent the sanctions in place, for example to sell Russian oil.
As a recent new development it appears that these vessels are also used to perform hybrid operations that target undersea cables. Prime example is the Baltic sea that is relatively shallow, and the cable locations are well documented. There has been multiple recent incidents involving ships that "accidentally" drag their anchors and cause damage.
The operation likely also involves finding crew members willing to take a compensation for performing the malicious task of dragging the anchor on the seabed. This is made easier by the fact that the crew can claim ignorance or bad seamanship. The threat to these persons is very limited, as the Nordic countries have very lenient legal systems. It is unlikely that they would be incarcerated for a significant amount of time, even if found guilty of sabotage.
The payout vs the investment is significant. The damage caused by the disruption of the undersea #telecommunications and electricity cables likely far exceeds the value of the ship or the cargo combined. The involved ship can just ignore any requests to stop or allow for inspections, as long as they are in international waters.
Considering there is a really high barrier in disrupting international shipping, anyone willing to abuse the system can continue to do so until significant changes will be made.
#hybridwarfare #sanctions #underseacable #estlink2 #ESTLINK #clion1
Yesterday, James Appathurai, #NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Innovation, Hybrid and Cyber, stated on @euronews:
“You might have seen that a Chinese ship cut the #Baltic connection cable. The Chinese have come forward to admit that.”
"
Chinese Ship’s Crew Suspected of Deliberately Dragging Anchor for 100 Miles to Cut Baltic Cables
"
https://www.benton.org/headlines/chinese-ship%E2%80%99s-crew-suspected-deliberately-dragging-anchor-100-miles-cut-baltic-cables
27.11.2024
#Arelion #BalticSea #BCSEastWestInterlink #China #Cinia #CLion1 #HybridWarfare #Internet #Ostsee #KRITIS #Seekabel #SubmarineCable #YiPeng3
A Chinese commercial vessel that has been surrounded by European warships in international waters for a week is central to an investigation of suspected sabotage that threatens to test the limits of maritime law—and heighten tensions between Beijing and European capitals. Investigators suspect that the crew of the Yi Peng 3 bulk carrier—225 meters long, 32 meters wide and loaded with Russian fertilizer—deliberately severed two critical data cables as its anchor was dragged along the Baltic seabed for over 100 miles.
There is the old adage that the #Internet would treat failures (including censorship) as an error and route around it.
With two #undersea cables having (been?) broken last week, we have an excellent real-time view into this.
Analysis data collected by #RIPE #Atlas probes (operated by volunteers) shows that even #outage of two major cables result in amazingly little extra delay or packet loss.
Thanks to all the ISPs keeping up a good mesh!
h/t @nohillside
#BCS #CLion1
https://labs.ripe.net/author/emileaben/does-the-internet-route-around-damage-baltic-sea-cable-cuts/
This week's Internet cable cuts in the Baltic Sea have been widely reported, even as attempts to understand their cause and impact continue. We turn to RIPE Atlas to provide a preliminary analysis of these events and ask to what extent the Internet in the region has been resilient to them.
Harry Sintonen
Osma A 🇫🇮🇺🇦
Falk Steiner
adorfer
Pixelcode 🇺🇦
RTN
Marcel Waldvogel
Harald Hannelius 
