Feds charge 16 Russians allegedly tied to botnets used in cyberattacks and spying
An example of how a single malware operation can enable both criminal and state-sponsored hacking.
Today, Swedish authorities have released the initial results of their investigation into the Baltic submarine cable cuts, saying that there is no evidence of foul play.
“It cannot be determined with certainty whether a Chinese ship intentionally damaged data cables in the Baltic Sea,” concluded the government authority in a statement.
However, a separate probe into the cuts is still ongoing, with deliberate damage by bad actors not being ruled out.
“A lot of [the damage to the cables] is consistent with an accident,” said the head of the investigating authority, Jonas Bäckstrand. “But it is clear that if you want to do something deliberately, you also do it in a way that will avoid detection as much as possible.”
The pair of submarine cables in the Baltic Sea were fully severed in November last year, with the surrounding nations quick to raise the question of potential sabotage.
Following the initial phases of investigation, it was discovered that the Chinese bulk carrier ship Yi Peng 3 was in the area at the time the cable damage occurred. The ship has since been under investigation for dragging its anchor across cables, though whether this was done deliberately or accidentally is unclear.
The two affected cables were the BCS East-West Interlink cable, which connects Gotland, Sweden, and Lithuania, and the C-lion-1 cable between Helsinki, Finland, and Rostock, Germany.
The latter is the only direct subsea cable link between Finland and mainland Europe.
At the time, the German and Finnish governments released a joint statement saying, “We are deeply concerned about the severed undersea cable connecting Finland and Germany in the Baltic Sea. The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage speaks volumes about the volatility of our times.”
“We take all reports of possible damage to infrastructure in the Baltic Sea very seriously. As I said earlier, they must be seen against the background of the serious security situation that prevails”, wrote Finnish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on X in February.
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Author: Ernestro Casas -
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