MINISTERS WARNED OVER PLOT TO DESTROY VITAL SITES

MINISTERS were warned 15 months ago that terrorists could target the poorly protected sheds along Britain’s coastline where undersea cables surface.

A 2017 report by the Policy Exchange think-tank said the landing sites were often in remote coastal towns and ‘do not typically benefit from the protection of highly trained personnel’.

Highlighting t heir appeal to terrorists, the report’s author, Tory MP Rishi Sunak, now a junior Minister, wrote: ‘ If the idea of ISIS/Daesh targeting a business park in a rural, coastal town seems far- fetched, it’s worth remembering that in 2007 Scotland Yard successfully foiled an Al Qaeda plot to destroy a key internet exchange in London.

‘ Given that the facility is considerably better protected than many undersea landing sites, it would seem hubristic to dismiss the possibility as too unlikely to warrant mitigation.’

He predicted that ‘major cable disruption’ at a leading financial centre such as London would be ‘potentially catastrophic’.

Industry sources say that a co-ordinated attack against several of the cable stations could cripple communications.

Inside the cable landing stations are sophisticated generating

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devices that inject up to 4,000 volts of power into the cable to speed data across the ocean. A number of air conditioning units are attached to the side of the Hibernia Express building to keep it cool.

After surfacing, the Hibernia cable runs underground to a huge data centre called LD4 in Slough, Berkshire. The cable from the shed in Nova Scotia links to a web of other cables connecting financial centres in Boston, New York, New Jersey and Chicago.

The Hibernia Express was launched in 2015 but was delayed for two years due to US concerns about the involvement of Huawei, the controversial Chinese technology giant.

The company was eventually dropped from the project.

Last night, Rupert Reid, research director at the Policy Exchange, said: ‘It is deeply concerning that over a year after we warned about this vulnerability, exposed landing points are still being found.

‘The Government and industry must redouble their efforts to protect this critical national infrastructure.’

A spokesman for t he Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said: ‘The Government is working closely with stakeholders, including the sub sea cables industry, to continually improve the security and resilience of the UK’s telecommunications networks .’