Finland Arrests Two Cargo Ship Crew Members Over Undersea Cable Damage
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Finnish authorities have detained all 14 crew members of a cargo vessel suspected of deliberately damaging an undersea telecommunications <\/a>cable connecting Helsinki to Estonia. <\/p>\n The ship, named Fitburg, was sailing from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Haifa, Israel, under a St. Vincent and the Grenadines flag when the incident occurred.<\/p>\n The crew, comprising Russian, Georgian, Kazakh, and Azerbaijani nationals, was arrested following an investigation into alleged \u201caggravated disruption of telecommunications\u201d and \u201caggravated sabotage and attempted aggravated sabotage.\u201d <\/p>\n According to the BBC<\/a>, police have launched a criminal probe into the incident as tensions rise over potential hybrid warfare tactics in the Baltic Sea region.<\/p>\n Finnish telecoms operator Elisa discovered the fault in its undersea cable, prompting immediate action from authorities. <\/p>\n A helicopter and patrol ship were dispatched to the area, where they found the vessel dragging its anchor along the seabed. Police took control of the boat as part of a joint security operation<\/a>. <\/p>\n However, Elisa confirmed that the damage had not disrupted its services, which were successfully rerouted.<\/p>\n President Alexander Stubb emphasized Finland\u2019s preparedness for security challenges, stating that the country responds to threats \u201cas necessary.\u201d <\/p>\n When journalists questioned whether the cable damage was carried out on behalf of another state, Police Chief Ilkka Koskim\u00e4ki declined to speculate, insisting that the investigation would determine what happened.<\/p>\n This incident is part of a concerning series of undersea cable disruptions in the Baltic Sea, which experts and political leaders increasingly view as elements of a \u201chybrid war<\/a>\u201d conducted by Russia against Western nations. <\/p>\n The scrutiny intensified following Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. A second cable linking Estonia to Finland also experienced an outage, with Estonian President Alar Karis expressing hope it was not deliberate. <\/p>\n In December 2024, Finnish police investigated a Russian ship\u2019s potential involvement in the sabotage of an electricity cable between Finland and Estonia. <\/p>\n The previous month, cables connecting Finland to Germany and Lithuania to Sweden\u2019s Gotland Island were damaged in what German officials described as apparent sabotage.<\/p>\n NATO has designated deep-sea cables as critical infrastructure, warning that adversaries could exploit them through sabotage or hybrid warfare. <\/p>\n The European Commission is closely monitoring the situation, with EU technology commissioner Henna Virkkunen vowing to counter \u201chybrid threats.\u201d<\/p>\n Follow us on Google News<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a>, and X<\/a> for daily cybersecurity updates. Contact us<\/a> to feature your stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n The post Finland Arrests Two Cargo Ship Crew Members Over Undersea Cable Damage<\/a> appeared first on Cyber Security News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nCable Damage and Security Response<\/strong><\/h2>\n