Image: The Meg – Warner Bros.

Have you seen the Meg? The movie seems like fun, but now it turns out there’s a real danger of sharks eating our Internet! As we’ve learned before, the Internet crosses the ocean through a network of fiber optic cables, running along the ocean floor. If a shark bites into these cables, they could cause damage and disrupt the flow of our data. Google is not taking any risks, and is planning to wrap its trans-Pacific fiber cables in Kevlar to protect against hungry sharks.

While I couldn’t resist sharing this news, in my opinion there are other concerns when thinking about the safety of these underwater cables – in fact, we have bigger fish to fry! Imagine an army sending their submarines or divers to intentionally cut these cables, causing major disruption in their opponent’s communications. Even more likely, the Russian submarines that have been spotted near these cables would not be interested in destroying them at all. Instead, they might try to tap into these cables to be able to eavesdrop on all passing communication, while remaining undetected.

(via retecool.com)