Cyberclinic: Could a few snapped cables crash the web?

On Thursday it was a small story many may have skimmed over: a couple of damaged cables in the Mediterranean caused internet access in the Middle East to slow to a miserable crawl. But our collective shrug highlighted how we take global communication for granted, and know precious little of its workings. On the Cyberclinic blog, Spykid said: "But isn't all that information beamed through space these days?" In fact it whizzes through fibre-optic cables that have been trailed across the ocean floor by telecommunications companies.

These cables are vast; one known as the SEA-ME-WE 3 is the longest at 39,000km, running from Germany to South Korea and 30 countries in between, while the FLAG cable that was affected last Thursday is a mere 28,000km, running in several sections between the US, UK, Mediterranean and the Far East. The cables are crucial to global communication, but they're only a couple of inches thick and easily damaged. A good example: back in June an 11km section of SEA-ME-WE 3 was stolen and sold as scrap by pirates, leaving residents of Vietnam without internet access. When a third submarine cable was damaged on Friday, cutting off Iran, and a fourth was damaged off the coast of Qatar a few hours later, bloggers were predicting full-scale global conflict before the week was out. But as John Rimmer pointed out on our blog: "Isn't this just a case of stories unearthing more stories that would normally go unnoticed?"

Certainly, but there's no doubt that the vulnerability of these cables is an issue, particularly as many of them enter countries at the same coastal location – Bude in Cornwall being one example. While governments and corporations may be planning backup via satellite uplinks, the rest of us must keep our fingers crossed that our connection to the outside world isn't disrupted by errant anchors, terrorist activity, or schools of inquisitive sharks.

Diagnosis required

Is it worth saving the money and building your own computer? And what do the signal bars on mobile phones actually tell us? Email cyberclinic@independent.co.uk, or join the discussions on the daily technology blog, independent.co.uk/cyberclinic.