Hi, this is Michelle. Despite popular belief, our digital world travels not through the skies but mainly deep underwater. As geopolitical tensions grow, the sprawling network of submarine cables connecting continents is increasingly at risk of disruption – whether accidental or intentional. The UN's tech agency is working to strengthen the rules that protect them, my colleague Maurizio Arseni reports.

More broadly, when digital infrastructure fails, the consequences can be quick and far-reaching. The ITU deputy head argues in this opinion piece why countries must prepare for a possible “digital pandemic”. And after a year of deadlock, countries need more time to negotiate the last piece of the pandemic treaty.

Michelle Langrand

06.05.2026

On our radar

Photo article

Workers check Google's new submarine cable that will connect the United States with the United Kingdom and Spain, in Sopela, Spain, 9 September 2021. (Keystone/EPA/Miguel Tona)

UN tech agency moves to protect submarine cables as tensions heighten risks. Undersea cables carry nearly all of the world's data, yet they have never been more exposed to conflict, geopolitical tensions and big tech expansion. Countries are turning to the International Telecommunications Union to strengthen governance over the internet’s undersea backbone.

Geneva Solutions

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What they think

❝Why every country must prepare for a ‘digital pandemic’. When disasters strike the physical digital infrastructure that keeps societies running, it can have catastrophic effects that the world should prepare for, like any other global crisis, writes Tomas Lamanauskas, deputy secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union. His comments come as the UN tech agency, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, and Sciences Po released a joint report yesterday mapping the different digital disaster scenarios in space, on land and at sea.

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