The Undersea data cable in the Baltic Sea between Finland and Germany has failed. The cable between Lithuania and Sweden was also damaged.

The data cable that runs almost 1,200 kilometers from the Finnish capital Helsinki to the German port city of Rost has been broken since this morning. The exact cause is still being investigated.

Sabotage or not?

Belga knows that the cable break was caused by an external factor in Swedish waters. For example, it could be an anchor or a trawl net. Growing global conflicts have increased fears of cyber attacks or attacks on (data) infrastructure, although it is not yet clear whether these may involve sabotage.

Ten meters further, a data cable between Lithuania and Sweden was also damaged. This was noticed by Cinia, the largest telecommunications company in Lithuania. The damage does not affect Finnish internet traffic as several cables run through Sweden to Finland.

Both the German and Finnish governments are very concerned about the incident. The repair work is now in full swing. It is unclear how long this work will take.