Red Sea conflict now a tech risk
Analysts warn that Middle East hostilities threaten Red Sea undersea cables and could trigger global internet slowdowns and supply‑chain shocks—India flagged as especially vulnerable. That’s not theoretical: disruptions to undersea infrastructure would cascade through cloud services, real‑time systems, and cross‑border commerce. (firstpost.com)
Sept. 6, 2025: multiple submarine cables were severed near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, producing widespread latency spikes and degraded connectivity across Asia, the Middle East and parts of Africa. (subseacables.net) Microsoft reported Azure users began seeing increased latency from about 05:45 UTC on Sept. 6 as traffic was rerouted after the Red Sea fiber cuts. (isdown.app) NetBlocks and other monitors flagged degraded connectivity that included India, prompting ISPs to reroute traffic and report higher transit times. (cnbc.com) Technical summaries named major Europe‑Middle East‑Asia systems—including SMW4 and IMEWE—among those affected, and industry reports warned physical repairs could take days to weeks with some restores stretching longer because repair vessels are limited. (complexdiscovery.com) Cloud‑sector analyses documented immediate effects on time‑sensitive services—Microsoft Azure confirmed latency; analysts said rerouting degraded performance for finance, real‑time logistics and voice services, increasing the risk of downstream supply‑chain slowdowns. (networkworld.com) Indian security and telecom think‑tanks pointed to heavy dependence on Red Sea corridors for Europe/Middle East routes and urged accelerated land‑route and domestic redundancy projects after the September outages. (idsa.in) Telecom operators and regional governments have accelerated plans for alternative paths—new land cables across the Arabian Peninsula and reroutes around Africa—citing rising insurance and repair costs plus a shortage of specialised cable‑repair ships. (agbi.com)
