SafeSeas is co-hosting a public event in Cape Town, South Africa on the 23.9. 14.00-16.00.
Chaired by Timothy Walker (Institute for Security Studies), the roundtable will feature presentations from key experts and stakeholders, including the Indian Ocean Commission, the African Union and the digital industry.
Register here to attend and to receive further information
Digital connectivity is vital for today’s economies and for sustainable development. Connectivity depends on critical infrastructures, such as subsea data cables, landing stations, data centres and terrestrial cable connections. Ensuring their resilience and appropriate protection from cyber and physical threats is hence a top priority. This event zooms in on a particular critical infrastructure: the subsea data cable networks.
Subsea data cables provide the connections required for the digital interactions that support everyday communications, with impact in many areas, from trade, to education, personal relations, but also diplomatic and military interactions. At this event we discuss the strategic importance of subsea data cables and the vulnerabilities and dependencies they imply for the African continent. Experts discuss how the risks and threats can be better addressed through information sharing, surveillance and monitoring but also through regional cooperation, cable diplomacy and external capacity building support.
The event follows a closed expert workshop and is organized by the Atlantic Center, Cardiff University, Institute of Security Studies (Pretoria), SafeSeas, the University of Copenhagen, University of Cape Town, and the EU’s Cyber4Dev Initiative. The discussion is part of a global series of events on the topic that started out with two webinars in 2021, and a workshop focusing on the EU and the implications for ocean governance, held in Lisbon in June 2022. A summary is provided here: https://www.safeseas.net/themes/cables/