Can’t believe it’s been over ten years.
2008 was when there were numerous undersea cable disruptions[1]. I wrote about them when it happened from the best sources I could find at the time[2].
It isn’t surprising to see that surveillance may have occurred as a result.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_submarine_cable_disruptio...
[2] - https://randomdrake.com/2008/02/12/the-submarine-cables-a-co...