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Comment by Terr_ | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if any countries have "just in case" sabotage-devices near the the undersea cables of possible enemies..

I'm sure that you're right. One of the first actions by Britain at the start of WWI was to cut Germany's undersea telegraph cables.

(Except for one which was under Britain's control. Germany ill-advisedly continued to send messages using this cable, confident in their encryption techniques. This led to the interception of the Zimmerman telegram which contributed to the United States' entry into the war.)

Undersea, on land, and outerspace, oh yeah.

Rumors abound of anti satellite/satellites (DS-P1-M and IS Satellites) and I think Russia, china, and the US have destroyed satellites with rockets. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-satellite_weapon

We have tinsel cluster bombs for power plants on land (BLU-114/b) https://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/dumb/blu-114.htm

And undersea tapping is being done: http://siliconangle.com/blog/2013/07/19/how-the-nsa-taps-und...

I sometimes wonder how many countries _don't_.

(Both the ability to destroy cables moving data for "possible enemies" who are other countries, as well as for "possible enemies" who are their own citizens...)

or a fleet of submarines that run around tapping them...?

If you've installed a tap, it can just as easily be a tap with a limited self-destruct (for deniability) and/or a bomb (for sabotage.)

The point is that the comm lines are more valuable as an intelligence asset than they are as a strategic target.

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