Microsoft Azure: "Multiple international subsea cables were cut in the Red Sea"
azure.status.microsoft
azure.status.microsoft
https://web.archive.org/web/20210107003422/https://www.wired...
The Verge also has a great article which is more recent and more specifically about a repair ship:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240422050805/https://www.theve...
Impact Summary
Starting at 05:45 UTC on 06 September 2025, traffic traversing through the Middle East originating and/or terminating in Asia or Europe regions may experience increased latency due to multiple undersea fiber cuts in the Red Sea. The disruption has required rerouting through alternate paths which may lead to higher-than-normal latencies.
This advisory is intended to raise awareness ahead of increased demand as the regions enter the start of its work week.
Current Status
Multiple international subsea cables were cut in the Red Sea. Our engineering teams are actively managing the interruption via diverse capacity and traffic rerouting, while also discussing alternate capacity options and providers in the region.
Undersea fiber cuts can take time to repair, as such we will continuously monitor, rebalance, and optimize routing to reduce customer impact in the meantime. We’ll continue to provide daily updates, or sooner if conditions change.
This message was last updated at 19:30 UTC on 06 September 2025
An article about people who fix this
Also, the teams are quite busy:
> "There are 150 to 200 instances of damage to the global network each year. So if we look at that against 1.4 million km, that's not very many, and for the most part, when this damage happens, it can be repaired relatively quickly."
...
> If a fault is found, a repair ship is dispatched. "All these vessels are strategically placed around the world to be 10-12 days from base to port,"
...
> To repair the damage, the ship deploys a grapnel, or grappling hook, to lift and snip the cable, pulling one loose end up to the surface and reeling it in across the bow with large, motorised drums. The damaged section is then winched into an internal room and analysed for a fault, repaired, tested by sending a signal back to land from the boat, sealed and then attached to a buoy while the process is repeated on the other end of the cable.
Strange way of writing 1.4gm.
Hosted by my own petard. :)
On land, we’ve call before you dig. I wish they could do something like call before you drop (anchor) training or just get the word out.
I can't say I'm an expert on the matter, but my understanding from industry reporting on some likely intentional ones in the Baltic where that they were still unambiguously done with anchors. Just by someone intentionally causing the anchor to drop and drag along.
And red sea is quite sunny currently (i just checked windy.com now) . There is absolutely no reason that they need to drop it out of nowhere.
Finding both ends of the cable to grab abd raise it took longer than the raise/splice operation.
I suspect a sufficiently malicious attacker could intentionally cut the cable twice, so when the repair crew drag up one end of the cut they know about, the section between the cuts drags its other end away from it's cut-point making the second repair significantly more difficult...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_loop_bridge
Spread-spectrum time-domain reflectometry (SS-TDR) is often used to locate and characterize a fault on active cables. Traditional time-domain reflectometry, which sends signals down a conductor to determine where any impedance discontinuities are by timing any reflections that come back from any impedance discontinuities along the way, can’t be used on in-use undersea cables thanks to the high voltages involved. SS-TDR, which was originally developed to detect faults in the wiring of airplanes using 400-Hz AC power, uses modulated pseudo-noise (PN) signals rather than a plain square wave pulse. The signals still bounce off any impedance changes introduced by damage, but an algorithm is used to correlate the returned PN codes with what was sent and when, making it easier to make measurements in a noisy environment. Optical TDR can also be used to locate fiber breaks
A little knowledge goes a long way
First option, there's some slack somewhere nearby to do a pull nearby.
If you ever pay attention to aerial poles, you'll see at various intervals things that are vaguely reminiscent of a snowshoe or tennis racket, in the industry they are in fact informally referred to as a 'snowshoe' and the entire purpose is to have some fiber to 'release' if a cut happens and a resplice is needed. [0]
I'd -assume- there is an analogue for these in undersea cables...
If not, well then you'd have to splice a length in and probably have the right sort of mechanism to ensure the cladding/etc stays contiguous (maybe even weld? IDK) but regardless you're probably talking... Actually wait yeah they've got this all figured out; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiwidMEv8CM
[0] - Real world example, for instance if someone uses a fiber splice can for target practice.
An article about such repairs (150-200 yearly)
> To repair the damage, the ship deploys a grapnel, or grappling hook, to lift and snip the cable, pulling one loose end up to the surface and reeling it in across the bow with large, motorised drums. The damaged section is then winched into an internal room and analysed for a fault, repaired, tested by sending a signal back to land from the boat, sealed and then attached to a buoy while the process is repeated on the other end of the cable.