Many people imagine the Internet as something invisible in the air, something above our heads that magically connects us to the outside world, raining down data on us. Because most of our devices no longer need to be connected to cables, many of us have come to believe the whole Internet has gone wireless.

The reality, however, is completely different. Beneath the oceans, a vast network of high-speed fiber-optic cables stretches about 800,000 miles along the earth. More than 400 undersea cables are responsible for transmitting 99 percent of international data, including everything from streaming videos and social media feeds to financial transactions and essential intelligence.

When you speak over a Zoom connection between the United States and Europe, the data transmitting your voice travels from your device to a nearby cell tower. This is the only wireless connection in the whole system. From the cell tower, it goes down through terrestrial fiber optics until it reaches a cable landing station near the water. From there, it goes to the floor of the Atlantic Ocean before it comes up at a cable landing station in Europe—all at the speed of light.

The fact that financial, government and military communications between countries also travel through these thin, unprotected cables makes them an often-overlooked but extremely concerning vulnerability. The entire world’s Internet infrastructure depends on these cables.

This issue gained attention earlier this year when a quarter of data traffic between Asia, the Middle East and Europe slowed after the Houthi terrorist group damaged three cables in the Red Sea.

Besides the Houthis, it is perhaps no surprise that two countries in particular have conducted highly suspicious activity around these cables for years: Russia and China.

Russia’s Subsea Sabotage Unit

Last year, after blaming Ukraine for blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline in 2022, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow has “no constraints—even moral—left to prevent us from destroying the ocean floor cable communications of our enemies.”

A few months later, an undersea cable connecting Sweden and Estonia was damaged around the same time as a subsea gas pipeline and a telecom cable connecting Finland and Estonia. Unsurprisingly, Finnish investigators found that a Russia-flagged ship and a Chinese vessel were operating in the area where the pipeline and cable were damaged.

The U.S. and its allies are becoming increasingly concerned about this cybervulnerability.

Last month, U.S. officials told cnn that Russia is building up a specific military unit aimed at sabotaging its enemies’ critical undersea cables. This General Staff Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research deploys an impressive fleet of surface ships, submarines and naval drones. A coordinated attack by such a unit could seriously disrupt communications between nato governments and militaries, as well as financial markets, energy suppliers and any other industry relying on these cables. Russia could also tap into undersea data streams and spy on military communications.

A joint investigation by public broadcasters of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland reported last year that approximately 50 Russian vessels in the seas around northern Europe are using underwater surveillance to map areas for potential attack.

There is evidence that these units may have tampered with subsea cables, with many experts saying Russia was to blame for the 2021 mysterious disappearance of miles of cables off the coast of Norway.

China’s Covert ‘Repair’ Ships

China is also no novice at tampering with the undersea Internet. Taiwanese and U.S. forces often see suspicious activity by the Chinese Navy in the Western Pacific.

In April 2023, Chinese maritime vessels “accidentally” disabled the only two undersea cables connecting Taiwan’s Matsu Islands to the Internet. For 50 days, the island’s 13,000 residents were effectively cut off from the Internet and had to rely on a microwave radio transmission system for limited access until the cables were repaired.

“It would take more than 10 minutes to send a text message, and sending a picture would take even longer,” said Lii Wen, the Matsu Islands head of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party. Booking hotels and logistics services became annoyingly difficult, and viewing content and films on social media was practically impossible.

If that is the damage of cutting just two cables, what would happen if China started sabotaging them by the dozens? Evidence suggests it may already be preparing for such an attack.

In May, U.S. officials warned that Internet cables in the Pacific Ocean connecting America and Asia were vulnerable to tampering by Chinese repair ships. These cables are often owned by Big Tech firms such as Amazon, Google and Meta.

S.B. Submarine Systems, a state-controlled Chinese company that supposedly repairs these international cables, has been caught multiple times over the past five years hiding its vessels’ locations from radio and satellite tracking. Chinese officials provided no explanation, raising suspicion among U.S. officials.

Amid China’s buildup of its military and naval fleet in the South China Sea, U.S. officials are especially worried about the security of cables that carry data to U.S. military bases around the area. Companies like S.B. Submarines Systems could easily install a device to remotely disable a cable, study technology installed by other companies, or tap sensitive data streams.

America’s Achilles’ Heel

While there is no hard evidence of major international subsea cables being sabotaged by Russia or China yet, the two are definitely aware of this vulnerability and have shown themselves capable of exploiting it. How devastating would it be if Russia and China simultaneously sabotaged multiple undersea cables that connect America to its allies and the rest of the world?

Without proper Internet communications, entire militaries and economies could potentially become disconnected from the outside world. Reports show that Russia and China are already developing satellites with grappling arms and other offensive warfare capabilities to sabotage U.S. satellites. Will undersea cables be their next target?

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has long warned of the dangers of America’s reliance on computer and Internet technology. In a January 1995 Trumpet article, he quoted Joseph de Courcy, who called this dependence the “Western world’s Achilles’ heel.”

A passage in Ezekiel 7 describes God’s punishment for the sins of the nations of Israel, mainly the U.S. and Britain. (Prove this truth by studying our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy.)

Mr. Flurry emphasized one alarming scripture in particular: “They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goeth to the battle: for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof” (verse 14). He explained:

The trumpet of war was blown in Israel—mainly America and Britain. It seems everybody was expecting our people to go into battle. But the greatest tragedy imaginable occurred! Nobody went to battle—even though the trumpet was blown! Will it be because of a computer terrorist?

The Trumpet has often applied this scripture to cyberwarfare, when enemies infiltrate crucial U.S. computer networks. But the cutting, sabotaging or tapping into of subsea cables could do just as much damage, if not more.

The Prophet Isaiah wrote of a time in end-time Israel when the people would be without vision: “[W]e wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night …” (Isaiah 59:9-10).

This passage applies today in a spiritual sense, but it could also apply to the physical blindness that America will experience when all its subsea connections to the outside world have been severed.

To learn about a similar way in which Russia and China are threatening America, read “The Satellite Slayers.” To learn where this cyberwarfare will lead, read “China Hacks America—and ‘None Goes to Battle.’”