Iran has threatened to attack undersea cables in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, critical infrastructure carrying 95% of international data traffic. The shallow waters make such attacks feasible with accessible technology, posing risks to Gulf economies heavily invested in AI and global financial systems.
Russian and Chinese ships have conducted sabotage attacks on underwater communications cables and energy pipelines, including the Yi Peng 3's severing of cables connecting Nordic countries and multiple mysterious incidents across Europe. These hybrid attacks exploit vulnerabilities in critical subsea infrastructure that carries global data and energy, with Elisabeth Braw's new book examining how outdated maritime laws leave this essential network vulnerable to state-sponsored disruption.
A Ukrainian man, Serhii K, is set to stand trial in Hamburg for sabotaging the Nord Stream pipelines in September 2022, accused of commanding Europe's largest act of sabotage in decades. German police tracked him through forensic evidence and DNA left on a rented yacht, leading to his arrest in Italy in August 2025. Both he and Ukraine have denied involvement in the explosions that ruptured the gas supply to Germany.
Russian military intelligence (GRU) organized a failed sabotage operation at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany in August, where a drone carrying explosives crashed into a Ukrainian cargo plane without detonating. The Insider identified the perpetrators and proved GRU involvement through investigation, linking operatives to previous sabotage operations in Poland and revealing connections between GRU Colonel Denis Smolyaninov, arms dealer Andrei Usachev, and operative Oleg Levushkin who had Latvian citizenship.