The Egyptian government says that ships did not damage the Internet cables in the Mediterranean reports the AFP. Two cables were damaged last week in the Mediterranean sea and another off the coast of Dubai, causing widespread disruption to Internet and international telephone services in Egypt, Gulf Arab states and South Asia (especially India). A fourth cable linking Qatar to the United Arab Emirates was damaged on Sunday causing yet more disruptions, telecommunication provider Qtel said. Egypt's transport ministry said footage recorded by onshore video cameras of the location of the cables showed no maritime traffic in the area when the cables were damaged. The outage should actually be a wake up call to revamp security of critical network infrastructure. Snapping four cables the size of a human leg is all it takes to cut out millions from the Internet, essential services like banking, telecommunications and government services were saved because the data routes that head east from Asia, under the Pacific Ocean, were intact. But if someone did plan this attack we might not be lucky next time.

(The above image shows major undersea fibre optic cables)