Is Russia trying its hardest to literally be The Worst? Because it's working.
US security analysts and high-ranking officials in the US Navy have said that Russian submarines are reportedly targeting the high-speed, fiber-optic cables that run along the Atlantic Ocean, with an ultimate view to severing the cables.
If these cables were cut, it would effectively grind international markets to a halt and cut off the Internet for most of Western Europe and the US. Although the Russian submarines have not been actively attempted to sever the cables, analysts believe that Russian submarines are probing and looking for weakness to penetrate.
"The risk here is that any country could cause damage to the system and do it in a way that is completely covert, without having a warship with a cable-cutting equipment right in the area,” said Michael Sechrist, a former project manager for a Harvard-M.I.T. research project funded in part by the Defense Department.
Commander William Marks, a spokesperson for the US Navy, said that it "would be a concern to hear any country was tampering with communication cables; however, due to the classified nature of submarine operations, we do not discuss specifics."
If your download cuts out at 65% or Netflix keeps stalling on you in the next few weeks, we can all blame the Russians.
Via NYTimes.com
