In general, cable cuts near the shoreline can be repaired relatively quickly because the cables are
more accessible. Conversely, cable cuts that occur in the deep sea may take a few weeks or
longer to repair, depending on the location of the cable cut and the position of the closest repair
ship. With publicly available information on submarine cable route positions, terrorists could
potentially cut many submarine cables along the coast in a short period of time with no
attribution. This type of attack, if successfully executed, would effectively disable a large
percentage of international connectivity and take several weeks from which to recover. Although
satellite backups are available, they may not be able to handle the traffic volume if several of the
major submarine cables were cut.