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Underwater cable between Finland and rest of Europe breaks.
A vital undersea cable linking new NATO member Finland to Germany has broken and disrupted communication between Helsinki and the rest of Europe, the company that runs the link said Monday.
The C-Lion 1 cable covers 730 miles between Finland and the German port city of Rostock. It’s operated by Cinia, a Finnish state-controlled data service provider.
On Monday, Cinia said it detected a fault in the C-Lion 1 cable that remains under investigation.
“Due to the fault, the services provided over the C-Lion 1 cable are down,” the company said in a statement.
Security analysts in Finland said the cable break could have been an intentional act and suggested that Russia might be responsible.
“If you look at this from the view of probability, then yes, this is on the side of intentionality,” Taplo Frantti, a professor of cybersecurity at the University of Jyvaskyla, told Finnish broadcaster Yle. “When a cable breaks, it raises questions about why it happened and who might have a motive to do something like this.”
He said Moscow would be the likeliest culprit if the break turns out to be intentional.
“They really seem to think that they have a special right to do such things. The motive for sabotage is usually that it’s done because it can be done,” Mr. Frantti said.
Moscow hasn’t commented on such allegations.
WASHINGTON