The Web Beneath the Waves

Dear Reader,

We think of the Internet as ethereal, but in fact it isn’t. What connects the online world is a dense network of thick fiber optic cables—heavy physical objects that sit at the bottom of the ocean and are therefore vulnerable to all sorts of misfortunes, natural and man-made. Most of us live in ignorance of the fragility of the system, but when there is a breach, the results are immediate and catastrophic.

In The Web Beneath the Waves, Samanth Subramanian, a brilliant Indian-British journalist, conducts a dazzling, and also daunting, world tour of the Internet’s cables. He visits several continents and speaks with a wide range of experts on technology, politics, and, more prosaically, the transport, placement, and repair of the cables themselves. The overall picture he gives us is mildly terrifying. A handful of big tech companies actually own the cables, making the rest of us uncomfortably dependent on them. Global superpowers, especially the United States and China, constantly maneuver against each other for advantage in their cable policies. Pirates try to steal the data moving through the cables. Roving crews sail around the world trying to fix breaches, not always successfully.

This is the kind of book that opens up a whole unknown world. Beautifully written, filled with vivid detail, it’s a pleasure to read, even as its message isn’t so pleasant.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Lemann
Director, Columbia Global Reports