What caused Red Sea Cable cut that led to outage in Microsoft Azure services; impacted internet services in India, Pakistan and Middle East

Internet connectivity in multiple countries including India and Pakistan has been affected due to subsea cable outages in the Red Sea, internet monitoring group Netblocks said. Tech giant Microsoft too said on Saturday that its Microsoft Azure users may experience increased latency due to multiple undersea fiber cuts in the Red Sea. Microsoft later said that the company has rerouted traffic through alternative network paths and network traffic is not interrupted. Azure is the world's second largest cloud provider after Amazon AWS.

What experts say on Red Sea cable cut

According to a report by news agency Associated Press (AP), experts believe that a commercial ship likely dragged its anchor and severed several undersea internet cables in the Red Sea. The incident seems to have disrupted web access across parts of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.The incident reportedly affected at least four major cables: The South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4, the India-Middle East-Western Europe, the FALCON GCX, and the Europe India Gateway. The cuts were initially believed to have occurred off the coast of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

John Wrottesley of the International Cable Protection Committee told the AP that commercial shipping activity is the "probable cause of damage." He noted that around 30% of annual cable incidents are caused by dragged anchors, which account for roughly 60 faults per year.The Red Sea is particularly vulnerable as cables lie in relatively shallow water, making it easier for a dragging anchor to damage them. Doug Madory, an internet analysis director at Kentik, also told the news agency that the working assumption is that a commercial vessel accidentally dropped its anchor and dragged it across the four cables.While many internet providers can reroute traffic, the damage has affected at least 10 nations, including India, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates, and has caused slower internet speeds.This incident highlights the vulnerability of the internet's undersea infrastructure, coming just over a year after a separate incident also severed cables in the region. Cable security has also been a growing concern amid attacks on ships by Yemen's Houthi rebels, who have been accused of plotting to attack undersea cables.

What makes Red Sea important for global internet backbone

The Red Sea is a critical telecommunications route, connecting Europe to Africa and Asia via Egypt. Repairing subsea cables in the area can prove to be difficult, particularly since Yemen’s Houthis continue to attack vessels in the area.