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Guardian

Guardian

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World

Australia is connected to the world by cables no thicker than a garden hose – and at risk from sharks, accidents and sabotage

Guardian
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Australia is connected to 15 of the world's fibre-optic cables, with the main landing stations in Sydney and Perth .

They are buried under the beach and fed out into the open water at depths of up to 8km before re-emerging in Singapore , Oman , Hawaii , among others.

Experts say they are vulnerable to sabotage and accidents, to hacking and (very occasionally) sharks.

Australia has announced it will spend $ 18 m over four years on a cable connectivity and resilience centre.

Communications minister Michelle Rowland said the new systems would “expand and strengthen the resilience of Australia ’s own digital connectivity’ But it doesn’t own the cables they’re owned by telecommunications companies and increasingly the “hyperscalers” including Amazon , Meta and Google .