Internet users in India, Pakistan, and parts of the Middle East faced widespread disruptions after subsea cable systems in the Red Sea were damaged, according to internet observatory NetBlocks. The outage has highlighted the vulnerability of global digital infrastructure that depends heavily on undersea cables for connectivity.
According to Reuters, the impact of the outage was not limited to South Asia. Users in the United Arab Emirates also reported difficulties in accessing online services, particularly those using Etisalat and Du networks. NetBlocks confirmed the disruptions and traced the problem to failures in cable systems near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
CAUSE IS STILL UNKNOWN
As of now, it remains uncertain who or what caused the damage to the subsea cables. Such outages are often attributed to accidental anchor drags, natural events, or, in rare cases, intentional sabotage. The Red Sea region is a major hub for undersea fibre-optic cables that carry a significant portion of global internet traffic.
MICROSOFT ISSUES ADVISORY
Global technology company Microsoft confirmed that its cloud computing platform, Azure, was among the services affected by the incident. In a statement released on Saturday, Microsoft said Azure users could experience higher latency because of “multiple undersea fibre cuts in the Red Sea.”
To minimise the impact, Microsoft has redirected traffic through alternate routes outside the Middle East, as reported by Reuters. The company clarified that while internet traffic flowing through the region may see delays, other global services remain unaffected. “We do expect higher latency on some traffic that previously traversed through the Middle East. Network traffic that does not traverse through the Middle East is not impacted,” Microsoft stated.
The incident underscores growing concerns about the security and maintenance of undersea cable systems, which serve as the backbone of global internet services. Experts say disruptions in these networks can ripple across continents, affecting businesses, cloud services, and individual users alike. With the increasing reliance on cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services, ensuring the stability of these critical infrastructure systems has become more urgent than ever.
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Inputs from Reuters