In the early hours of September 6, 2025, a critical blow was dealt to the backbone of global internet connectivity when multiple submarine fiber optic cables were deliberately cut in the Red Sea. The Red Sea, a crucial maritime chokepoint connecting Europe, Asia, and Africa, saw vital undersea cables severed, disrupting internet access for millions across the Middle East and South Asia and causing latency issues on major cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. The cables affected in this latest attack include extensions of crucial networks such as the AAE-1 (Africa Asia Europe-1), SEACOM, and the recently damaged PEACE cable. These cables collectively carry between 25% and up to 70% of internet traffic connecting the continents, underscoring the massive scale of disruption.
The Middle Eastern countries that lost internet connectivity or experienced severe outages due to the 2025 Red Sea undersea cable bombing and related disruptions include:
• Saudi Arabia: Major impacts due to damage near Jeddah affecting key undersea cables, causing slower internet speeds and connectivity issues.
• United Arab Emirates: Users on networks like Du and Etisalat reported noticeable slowdowns.
• Pakistan: Experienced a dramatic collapse in internet access, with connectivity falling to about 20% of normal levels. This caused significant disruptions for millions of users.
• Iran: Suffered near-total internet blackouts attributed to government-imposed restrictions amid conflict with Israel. Connectivity dropped by about 97%, severely limiting access.
• India: Noted as impacted in the region-wide disruptions due to cable cuts.
• Other affected regions in the Middle East likely faced degraded or slowed internet, although specific outage severity details beyond these countries were limited.
The severity of the outages varied by country:
• Pakistan faced severe collapse down to 20% connectivity.
• Iran had near-complete shutdowns and internet was heavily restricted.
• UAE and Saudi Arabia saw partial service slowdowns with degraded speeds rather than full blackouts.
• The overall disruption affected up to 25% of global internet traffic crossing between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
The damage began impacting the Microsoft Azure cloud network by 05:45 UTC on September 6, forcing network operators to reroute traffic through lengthier alternate paths, resulting in notable delays and slower connectivity.
According to Microsoft’s Azure status page, network traffic traversing through the Middle East may experience increased latency due to undersea fiber cuts in the Red Sea. Network traffic is not interrupted as Microsoft has rerouted traffic through alternate network paths. We do expect higher latency on some traffic that previously traversed through the Middle East. Network traffic that does not traverse through the Middle East is not impacted.
This incident forms part of an escalating pattern of submarine cable vulnerabilities in strategic waterways revealed since 2024. Earlier cable cuts in the Red Sea region were linked to broader geopolitical tensions, notably the conflict in Yemen, where the Houthi rebel group has been accused of planning undersea attacks to pressure Israel over its conflict with Hamas—claims the Houthis deny. The 2024 Red Sea damage was partially attributed to collateral effects of missile strikes on a cargo ship, which subsequently dragged its anchor and severed multiple cables.
The 2025 attacks reveal a chilling evolution in hybrid warfare tactics targeting critical infrastructure just below thresholds that might provoke conventional military responses. Sophisticated sabotage techniques such as anchor-dragging ships operating under suspicious circumstances and other covert methods suggest state-linked activities aimed at digital disruption. Intelligence assessments point to increased naval capabilities by global powers including Russia and China, which have the means and technical sophistication to carry out underwater sabotage and surveillance operations.
The broader implications of the 2025 Red Sea bombing are profound. Disruptions to submarine cables threaten financial markets, cloud computing services, and everyday internet-dependent activities across dozens of countries. Cloud giants like Microsoft reported ongoing monitoring and mitigation efforts, yet repairs are complicated by the region’s instability and challenges securing repair permissions.
International experts warn that the global economy’s increasing reliance on a small number of subsea cable routes, particularly through geopolitically volatile regions like the Red Sea, exposes a soft underbelly of digital infrastructure. Calls are mounting for enhanced security measures, public-private investment in resilient infrastructure, and diversification of cable routes to reduce chokepoint vulnerabilities.
The 2025 Red Sea cable bombing serves as a stark reminder of how intertwined geopolitics, military competition, and digital connectivity have become. Protecting these unseen but vital underwater arteries is now a critical issue for maintaining global security, economic continuity, and the free flow of information in an increasingly connected worldÂ
