Not sure but in asking around, if those cables were fiber optic then you couldn’t tap them, then too, copper wire is only good for 33,000 feet before the bandwidth fails or something something.
“Why on Earth would they cut something they can tap into? Intercepting data and injecting misleading data are far more valuable tricks than cutting one data route off.”
Last I checked the USA was a global service economy heavily dependent on outsourcing of services, a global provider of services, and heavily dependent on and extended, global supply chain for imports. Russia is a provider of natural resources, with and overlay of manufacturing that is no too dependent on a outside manpower. Cutting the undersea data cables would hurt Russia a lot less than the other global powers.
I for one think our reliance on outsourced services and imports is a strategic weakness. If an attack on the global data infrastructure is going to happen I hope it is sooner rather than later because we get more vulnerable every year.
If the cables are cut there will be a very large number of corporations that will not be able to function until the damage is fixed or until these corporations insource their IT infrastructure, IT personnel, and manufacturing. If We enter World War III with multiple major powers you can say goodby to a stable and functioning global internet until the conflict is resolved. There will be a lot wage inflation of Americans unless the socialists can impose “patriotic” labor controls and salary freezes.
“Why on Earth would they cut something they can tap into? Intercepting data and injecting misleading data are far more valuable tricks than cutting one data route off.”
To Russia it would be the equivalent of closing down Voice of America. Plus it shuts down any outbound traffic about the situation on the ground.
Based on the book, "Blind Man's Bluff," I know that this is how we first intercepted Soviet cables with our submarines. Communications were probably less encrypted and less complex in general 3 or 4 decades ago. That in mind, I suspect that these cables are built with more shielding to prevent any sort of induction leak.