Australia's vulnerability to attacks on subsea cables that internet traffic flows through has been underlined by the deputy prime minister at an Asian security summit.
Richard Marles, also Australia's defence minister, has highlighted the "historically unprecedented" attacks on critical infrastructure on the ocean floor.
"It is striking that several cables have been severed across the Baltic and the Taiwan Strait since November 2024," he said at 2026 Shangri-La Dialogue, without levelling accusations at individual countries.
"Now, maybe these were accidents," he added at the Singapore defence meeting on Saturday.
"But even if they were, it highlights the vulnerability of this crucial part of the globe's infrastructure."
With roughly 99 per cent of Australia's internet flowing through just 15 subsea cables, Mr Marles said Australia was among the most exposed nations in the world to this "documented pattern of behaviour".
