Sharper: Securing Critical Infrastructure

The systems that keep global society running are increasingly in adversaries’ sights. From sabotage on the subsea cables that enable global connectivity to missile attacks on oil fields in the Middle East, this year has demonstrated the importance of properly securing critical infrastructure. Center for a New American Security (CNAS) experts are developing policy recommendations to harden these networks, strengthen allied monitoring and repair, and ensure the United States can withstand disruption in a crisis or conflict. Continue reading this edition of Sharper to learn more.

Features:

Documentary | Digital Lifelines

Subsea cables are essential to allied communications and crisis coordination, and recent Chinese vessel activity near cable routes off the Philippines underscores their vulnerability. Digital Lifelines, a new CNAS documentary short, examines these threats and how governments can strengthen monitoring, response, and resilience. CNAS launched the film on October 21 with a panel discussion on protecting subsea cables in the Indo-Pacific, featuring Felipe F. Cariño III, deputy chief of mission, Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines, and Andrea Yang, deputy representative, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States, and moderated by Ryan Claffey, research assistant with the CNAS Indo-Pacific Security Program.

Report | Thwarting Communications Blackout

In Thwarting Communications Blackout: Protecting Taiwan’s Information and Communication Networks from China’s Attempts to Cut Them Off, authors Jacob Stokes and Ryan Claffey assess the contest for control over Taiwan’s external communications. The authors recommend that Taiwan consider requiring physical hardening for new or repaired cables, that the United States compile a dataset of cable-cutting incidents and formally attribute sabotage where intelligence supports it, and that Washington support Taipei’s efforts to develop a non-Starlink satellite option.

Report | U.S.-Japan-Philippines Trilateral Cooperation

Protecting undersea infrastructure is a growing pillar of allied cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. In U.S.-Japan-Philippines Trilateral Cooperation: The Bedrock of a New U.S. Indo-Pacific Deterrence Strategy, authors Lisa Curtis and Ryan Claffey write that the three allies “should pool resources and coordinate investments to diversify subsea cable infrastructure and improve maritime monitoring.” Their recommendations include leasing cable repair ships, diversifying cable landing station locations on the Philippines’ eastern coast, and compiling a shared database of cable-cutting incidents.

Commentary

Analysis from Kalena Blake, Spencer Michaels, Janet Egan, Will Rogers, Michael Daniel and Leah Emanuel