European investigators believe a Chinese-owned commercial ship deliberately dragged its anchor to sabotage the two undersea telecommunications cables cut in the Baltic Sea earlier this month. Western law enforcement suspects Russian intelligence was behind the operation.

Summary

European investigators allege that the Chinese-owned ship Yi Peng 3 deliberately dragged its anchor to sever two Baltic Sea undersea data cables connecting Lithuania-Sweden and Finland-Germany.

While the Chinese government is not suspected, officials are probing possible Russian intelligence involvement.

The ship’s suspicious movements, including transponder shutdowns and zig-zagging, suggest deliberate action.

The vessel, linked to Russian trade since March 2024, was carrying Russian fertilizer when stopped.

NATO warships surround the ship, but international maritime laws limit investigators’ access.

  • @[email protected]
    1•11 hours ago

    They can actually just store the data on drives on the snooping device, and then periodically swap out the storage devices with a submarine.

    • @Cocodapuf
      1•4 hours ago

      Periodically like every minute?

      These cables can carry terabits per second. I suppose if you had 100 petabytes of storage (that could probably be achieved with a single large rack of machines) you could just swap the entire rig every few hours or so, but that feels extremely cumbersome.