Private Companies Must Improve Threat Monitoring

Swedish Cable Operator Faces Geopolitical Sabotage Concerns

Arelion, a Sweden-based communication company owned by an investment fund, manages an extensive global network of telecommunications cables. Spanning 75,000 kilometers across Europe, North America, and Asia, its infrastructure connects more than 2,750 wholesale customers in over 128 countries. With offices spread across Europe (including Moscow), Asia, and the United States, Arelion exemplifies globalization, offering critical connectivity essential to the modern global economy.

However, on the morning of Sunday, November 17, one of Arelion’s pivotal cables, linking Sweden and Lithuania, was mysteriously severed. The event caught the company off guard, as it had no advance signs of malfunction. “It’s a mystery how it broke,” said Arelion’s Chief Evangelist Mattias Fridström in an interview with Sweden’s Aftonbladet. “But I leave that to the police to investigate.”

In an earlier era of globalization, an unexpected break in such a cable might indeed have been chalked up to an accident or natural causes. Subsea cable owners, roughly 600 of whom manage the world’s network of undersea internet cables, exercise meticulous care over their assets to prevent disruptions. However, in today’s geopolitical climate — marked by tensions between states and covert attempts to undermine rivals using nonmilitary tools — incidents like these are raising alarms.

According to global insurance broker WTW’s 2024 Political Risk Survey, 69 percent of companies surveyed experienced supply chain disruptions linked to geopolitical events in the past year, and 72 percent reported financial losses due to political risks. This underscores a growing reality: private companies are increasingly on the front lines in geopolitical conflicts.

Such incidents are not isolated. In recent months, Western logistics firms have encountered parcel bomb plots, reportedly instigated by Russia. The CEO of German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall survived an alleged assassination attempt, also tied to Moscow. Additionally, Western corporations fear being ousted from mining and business operations in Sub-Saharan Africa, as Russian and Chinese rivals allegedly employ underhanded tactics to gain dominance.

On the oceans, vital installations such as undersea cables, pipelines, and offshore wind farms appear to be becoming targets for sabotage. Arelion’s severed cable is widely suspected to fall into this category. Similarly, Cinia, the Finnish operator of the C-Lion1 cable that connects Finland and Germany, faced a recent disruption under similarly suspicious circumstances.

As geopolitical rivalries intensify, the world’s critical communication and energy infrastructure, often operated by private companies, faces mounting risks in serving as a battleground in these conflicts.