Guardians of the Subsea Cables: Professor Kai London on Securing the Infrastructure of the Internet
By the Keflavik Times Technology Desk Professor Kai London — board advisor & interim CISO/CIO/CTO. Credit: professorkailondon.com Almost all intercontinental internet traffic travels not through satellites but through cables on the ocean floor — and the systems that manage and monitor them are a piece of critical infrastructure most people never consider. “Subsea cables are the nervous system of the global internet,” says Professor Kai London , a senior CISO. “The physical cables are one concern; the network and management systems that run them are a cyber concern of national importance.” “Resilience of the systems that operate our connective infrastructure is a strategic issue. When the management layer is compromised, the consequences reach far beyond one operator.” The management layer is the target London draws a distinction between physical threats to cables and cyber threats to the systems that operate them — the landing-station controls, network management and monitori...