Monday 21 October, 17.00
Pembroke College and Online
Emerging Threats & Technology Working Group
Topic: New Depths: U.S.‐China Competition in Undersea Digital Infrastructure
Moderator: Anniki Mikelsaar, DPhil Candidate, Oxford University
Meetings will run both in person and online. Please be aware that group attendance may be limited. For registration and full details, please see: https://emergingthreats.co.uk/ In person location: Mary Hyde Eccles Room, Pembroke College
The need for undersea telecommunication cables and their supporting technologies continues to increase. As companies, governments, and individual users are becoming increasingly reliant on cloud-based data storage and secure telecommunications, internet cables and their supporting infrastructure have become indispensable for the functioning of the digital economy and the development and deployment of AI-based systems.
At the same time, the intensifying U.S.-China technological rivalry influences the global digital infrastructure market, posing new challenges to the security of these systems, while equally increasing consumer costs. Recently, governments particularly in the U.S. and Europe have started to strengthen their regulations around cable security, enforcing stricter ownership rules, and endorsing caution toward ‘high-risk vendors.’ Why is that? What are some of the impacts of this strategic competition on the security and openness of the global Internet? And which measures, particularly those of closer industry-government collaboration, would enable overcoming the challenges?
