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Undersea cables are high-priority targets – it's high time to make these global pathways more resilient. It's 'essential to national security' ex-Navy intel officer tells us. Interview As undersea cables carry ever-increasing amounts of data, they become even higher priority targets for both cyber and physical attacks. Plus, credible threats to and destruction of this underwater infrastructure is, apparently, no longer only in the purview of nations like Russia and China, as the recent damage the damage to submarine cables in the Red Sea indicates. Governments need to step up and do a better job boosting the resiliency of global communications and connectivity systems, Cailabs US President Jeff Huggins told The Register in an interview that you can watch below. Youtube Video "At some point, it moves from stuff that's nice to have to stuff that's essential to have — and essential to national security and commerce," Huggins said.  During his career, first as a US Navy intelligence officer, then during his tenure at defense companies including Israel Aerospace Industries North America and Raytheon, and now at the laser communications developer, he's seen undersea and land internet cables become more of a target, and not only during times of international conflict.  His proposed solution to this problem? Coupling optical ground station networks with optical satellite links. "Optical technology," according to Huggins, "can add some resiliency to our global network."