alt Hacker NewsOne important question that I'm unclear on is how long it takes to fix one of these cables. If it takes months then that is quite a wide window in which an attacker could incrementally take down cables.
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Certainly worth blowing up some russian ships to make sure it doesn't happen again
This is a great video on undersea cables https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFt9le2ytW0
"Sabatoge" and repair is discussed at 11:45
Generally it can be fixed in days. They raise it from the sea floor and splice in a new cable section.
In this particular case, it seems like the attackers were trying for plausible deniability (making it look like an accident with an anchor). A comprehensive series of "accidents" wouldn't fit that goal.
(And if they decide they don't care about plausible deniability, they could use sub-deployed timed mines to take out every cable at once.)
They could even blow up all cables at once. Maybe the explosives have already been placed.