Icelandic companies urged to prepare for undersea cable disruption

Businesses and institutions in Iceland should put backup communications in place to reduce the impact of possible damage to undersea cables, Þorvarður Sveinsson, chief executive of Korda, told mbl.is.

Korda operates telecommunications submarine cables connecting Iceland to the outside world. Sveinsson was speaking about an incident earlier this spring in which Russia was stopped during exercises near the Svalbard archipelago, north of Norway. The exercises involved a new weapon intended for submarines to cut cables on the seabed.

Russia has previously been linked to damage involving undersea cables, including in the Baltic Sea. Sveinsson said the incident had prompted him to urge company leaders to take preventive measures wherever possible.

Satellite solutions and alternative connections are now available through telecommunications companies, he said. The satellite services are new and offer limited bandwidth, making it important for organisations to install and test them and conduct scenario planning before they are needed.

“It becomes virtually impossible to respond during the event itself, but preventive measures can now be taken to reduce the damage,” Sveinsson said. “This threat has been active for four and a half years, and we have taken various measures. Now company leaders need to respond.”