Proposed Law to Protect Undersea Internet Cables Mandates Sanctions, New Security Guidelines

The Strategic Subsea Cables Act of 2025 is a major effort to secure the physical backbone of the global internet: the fiber-optic cables running along the ocean floor. If you’ve ever had a video call with someone overseas or used an international banking app, you were relying on these cables. This bill directs the federal government to stop treating them like an afterthought and start protecting them like the critical infrastructure they are.

It kicks off by requiring the creation of a national strategy to protect these cables from physical and cyber threats, including espionage and sabotage. To make sure everyone is on the same page, it establishes an interagency committee, led by the Department of Homeland Security, to coordinate protection efforts across the entire federal apparatus. Think of it as finally forming a unified security team for the internet’s plumbing, which is currently scattered across a dozen different government offices.

The Global Game: Deterrence and Diplomacy

One of the most interesting parts of this bill is its focus on international action, found in Title I. It requires the U.S. to step up its role in the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) and directs the State Department to actively work with allies to streamline cable maintenance and repair. For the average person, this means that if a cable gets accidentally cut by a fishing trawler or damaged in a storm, the process to get it fixed and restore service should get faster and less bureaucratic worldwide.

More critically, the bill mandates sanctions—freezing assets and banning entry—on foreign individuals or entities that intentionally damage subsea cables in a way that harms U.S. national security. This is a clear attempt at deterrence, putting foreign actors on notice that messing with the internet’s infrastructure will carry a specific, economic penalty. While the bill doesn't spell out the exact threshold for 'harming U.S. national security,' the intent is clear: don't touch the cables.

New Rules for the Cable Owners

For the private companies that actually own and operate these massive cable systems—the ones that keep your Netflix stream running smoothly—the bill introduces new requirements. Section 1 mandates that the government develop specific security guidelines for them. This means new rules and standards for how cables are laid, monitored, and protected.

This is where the rubber meets the road for costs. While improved security is great for everyone who uses the internet, implementing new, likely expensive security measures falls on the private telecom companies. These costs could potentially trickle down to consumers through slightly higher service fees or infrastructure costs over time. It’s the classic trade-off: better security usually costs more, but the alternative—a major cable outage—is far more expensive for the global economy.

Coordination and Clarity

Title III is all about better coordination. It creates a new government committee to act as the primary liaison between the federal government and the private cable industry, aiming to share threat information more quickly and efficiently. If the government picks up chatter about a potential threat to a cable off the coast of Florida, this framework ensures that the company owning that cable gets the warning fast, rather than waiting for a slow-moving bureaucracy to catch up.

In short, this legislation is a necessary security upgrade for the modern world. It acknowledges that the internet is no longer just a luxury but essential infrastructure, and it’s finally giving the physical cables the attention and coordinated protection they deserve. While it introduces new regulatory burdens for the companies that own the cables, the potential benefit is a more stable, secure global internet for everyone who relies on it for their job, their banking, and their communication.