The Australian Defence Force says it’s aware of the potential threats to undersea data cables linking Australia to the rest of the world and is considering what can be done.
Addressing the 2025 Military Communications and Information Systems (MiLCIS) conference in Canberra, Air Commodore Paul Pettigrew, Joint Force Cyber Component Commander said he was immediately visualising ships dragging their anchors over cables.
“All I can say is we are tracking; we are understanding that. We understand implicitly the communication lines throughout our theatre,” he said.
“We’re turning our mind to what the threats are to that and what effectors could impact that physically… and also logically through cyber space.
The global threat to undersea cables, which carry much of the world’s data and internet traffic has been recognised with a series of incidents in Europe where Russian-associated freighters have deliberated cut the cables by dragging their anchors.
In the UK, it’s been recommended that the Royal Navy lead the protection of undersea cables.
Rear Admiral Andrew Quinn, head of space and cyber capabilities in the Joint Capabilities Group, said he was very keen for an open dialogue to recognise undersea cable as critical infrastructure.
He said there were multiple undersea cable pathways into Australia.
“Defence has some discrete capabilities that we can do to assure capability, that the rest of the general population does not have, as you would expect. But the impact of starting to knock cables off will be a huge impact on the Australian community,” he said.
“I would expect banking would really struggle very, very, quickly.”
Addressing MiLCIS, Chief of Joint Operations Lieutenant General Susan Coyle said the cyber warfighting domain was no longer emerging.
“It is fully operational. It is contested 24/7 and its character is continuously evolving,” she said.
“We are not just a support functions or an enabler. It is the generation and employment of cyber power and it is a strategic capability that has to underpin integrated operations, to shape the battlespace and defence and protect our national interests.”
LTGEN Coyle said the reality of the new cyber demanded a transformation in how the Australian Defence Force postured, equipped, trained and fought.
“And that is what we have done. Our cyber operations are now fully integrated across all levels – strategic, operational and tactical,” she said.
“Strategically cyber support deterrence, counter-influence, national support base resilience and collective regional cyber security enhancement. Operationally cyber domains activities enable integrated force manoeuvre.
“Tactically, cyber missions sets and effects are delivered in support of our defence objectives and ADF forces globally, assuring communications and enhancing survivability and lethality.
“Our people, our integrated ADF, APS and industry partners makes this happen 24/7.”