Finland and Germany investigate severed undersea data cable

Finland and Germany are investigating a severed undersea data cable which runs between the two countries in the Baltic Sea.

A joint statement was issued where they both they expressed concern over a potential act of sabotage and said an investigation is underway.

“The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage speaks volumes about the volatility of our times,” the statement said.

It said that the discovery comes at a time that "European security is not only under threat from Russia‘s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors,” adding that it is crucial that such “critical infrastructure" be safeguarded.

The Finnish state-controlled data services provider Cinia said the severed data cable was detected on Monday in the C-Lion1 cable that runs nearly 1,200 kilometres from the Finnish capital of Helsinki, to the German port city of Rostock.

Cinia said Finland’s international data and telecommunications connections are secured by running them through several redundant lines, and the effects of a single cable failure would depend on the security level of service providers’ connections.

The C-Lion1, commissioned in 2016, is Finland’s only data communications cable that runs from the Nordic country directly to central Europe, according to Finnish public broadcaster YLE.

Finnish media outlets noted that the cable's route to Germany runs in the vicinity of the two NordStream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany that are currently not functioning.

It follows a similar incident involving a communications cable between Lithuania and Sweden, which was cut on Sunday morning, according to telecommunications company Telia Lithuania.

The damaged cable was roughly 95 to 105 kilometres from the severed cable between Germany and Finland.

It is currently unclear what has caused the damage to the two cables.