A conference gets underway in Valentia today which focuses on the need to protect our underwater cables from damage and attack.
The Valentia Transatlantic Cable Foundation is hosting the inaugural Subsea Cable Security and Resilience Symposium from today until Saturday.
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence Micheál Martin is among the symposium’s 85 speakers from 10 countries.
Valentia is famed for being the place where the first transatlantic cable was laid over 150 years ago, a seminal moment in global communications.
These days, over 99 per cent of transcontinental data depends on subsea cables.
Subjects for discussion at the symposium include responding to threats to undersea cables, Ireland’s options as an EU member state and subsea cable security through enhanced monitoring.
Earlier this year, the European Commission said that Ireland must take action to ensure that submarine cables are secure.
There have been concerns that such cables that connect Europe with the US and that run through Irish waters, are vulnerable to spying or even sabotage.
Just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian navy conducted military manoeuvres close to Irish-controlled waters.
Russian-registered ships have been observed in the west and south west since - some close to a recently opened sub-sea communications cable.
The Valentia Transatlantic Cable Foundation says the not-for-profit event is supported by the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Defence, the IDA, the European Subsea Cables Association, and by the private sector including subsea connectivity business AquaComms and law firm Philip Lee.
