GoKawiil
Tech News
A Taiwanese court convicted the captain of the Chinese-owned vessel Hong Tai of deliberately severing an undersea telecommunications cable in February 2025, sentencing him to three years in prison in June 2025. Taiwan's legislature subsequently toughened penalties for damaging undersea cables or pipelines, raising the maximum sentence to seven years.
A Reuters report says a joint US, UK, and Norwegian naval operation this spring detected Russian submarines rehearsing the use of an undisclosed device meant to disable undersea cables without leaving traceable damage. The exercise reportedly took place near Norway's Svalbard archipelago, where two 1,400km cables running nearly 3km deep link the islands to the mainland. No cables were actually harmed, and officials describe the Russian activity as a simulation for use in a potential future conflict with NATO.