By Asiri Fernando Courtesy The Morning

• Govt. working with WB technical support
• SL’s undersea umbilical cable vulnerable

 Sri Lanka’s renewed focus on a digital economy as part of its recovery effort and the cornerstone of the island’s future economic growth remains vulnerable, with the proposed enactment of legislation on the protection of vital undersea data cables remaining incomplete to date, The Sunday Morning learns.

This, despite the process for the formulation of a protection framework being discussed since 2018 and a draft framework being prepared in 2021. It is learnt that the Government has now decided to draft a new bill for the protection of its undersea data cables.

Today, Sri Lanka’s connectivity, trade, and digital economy as an island nation are largely dependent on seven undersea fibre-optic data cables which remain underprotected by local legislation. This gap in legislation leaves Sri Lanka’s national security, economic security, and planned recovery in a vulnerable state.

The move comes amidst the Government’s stated desire to improve digitalisation of the public service, Sri Lanka’s digital economy, and the ease of doing business in Sri Lanka.

Such legislation, had it been introduced, would have placed Sri Lanka as the regional leader in submarine cable protection – especially in tandem with the Personal Data Protection Act which was adopted – enabling the island nation, which is seeking to improve its ‘hub’ status, to attract tech investments.

New bill

According to Ministry of Technology Secretary Prof. Niranjan D. Gunawardena, the Government is now drafting a new standalone legislation for Undersea Data Cables (UDCs) with technical support from the World Bank (WB).

When contacted, President’s Office Director of International Affairs Dinouk Colombage told The Sunday Morning that the previously drafted framework had been seen as lacking, with the process to draft a new bill tasked to the Ministry of Technology.

The Technology Ministry is drafting the bill and will seek the advice of the Attorney General’s Department regarding it,” Colombage explained, adding that the President was keen on having a well-drafted act for the task.

The Sunday Morning learns that the Government is keen to introduce the new legislation before Sri Lanka takes over the leadership of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) later this year.  

The formulation of the legislation, which was previously under the purview of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has been transferred to the Ministry of Technology and the Presidential Secretariat following Ranil Wickremesinghe taking office as the President.

Prelude  

The Sunday Morning earlier reported that a draft legal framework for the protection of UDCs had been presented to the Presidential Secretariat in 2021, but did not progress any further. This, despite inter-ministerial consultation and expert advice from UN agencies in drafting the framework.  

In 2021, Sri Lanka initiated a Submarine Cable Protection Framework with the assistance of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Japan, following initial interest in the topic at the 2018 ‘The Indian Ocean: Defining Our Future’ conference held in Colombo.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) worked together with assistance from the UNODC to draft the region’s first protection legislation for submarine cables that link the world. However, the draft and the planned roll-out got caught up in the bureaucracy between the ministries and the Presidential Secretariat and ended up being shelved.    

Last year, before the social and political turmoil occurred, informed sources told The Sunday Morning that the Government was planning to designate submarine cables as critical information infrastructure and legislate it under the upcoming cyber security legislation.

The sources said that the Government would also move to amend the Telecommunications Act to include provisions which would make damaging or tampering with undersea cables a crime. At the time, the draft cyber security legislation was with the Legal Draftsman. However, that process now seems to have been abandoned.

UDCs: Critical infrastructure

Over 95% of global communications occur through fibre-optic undersea cables. An estimated $ 10 trillion (2020) of economic activity moves through submarine cables every day.

Often called the world’s information superhighways,” undersea cables carry over 95% of international data. In comparison with satellites, subsea cables provide high capacity, cost-effective, and reliable connections that are critical for our daily lives.

There are approximately more than 400 active cables worldwide covering 1.3 million kilometres, the Center for Strategic Studies said in 2021.

Given the reliance of nation states on UDCs, particularly island nations, for critical state functions from personnel management and financial transactions matters to military communication, it is surprising that a large portion of the global network of submarine cables is privately-owned and maintained.

Given the importance of UDCs to the global communications network, in 2018 it was identified that there was an opportunity for Sri Lanka to take a lead role in a critical issue of global importance, following the Government’s interest in addressing this issue at the 2018 Ocean Summit, held in Colombo.

Present domestic and international laws on the use and security of UDCs are inadequate, according to a Foreign Ministry official who declined to be named. Most UDCs are privately owned and therefore do not fall under sovereignty jurisdiction of countries beyond territorial waters.

The cables come under Sri Lankan law up to 12 nautical miles, but beyond that we have no legal authority to enforce their security or prosecute any offenders who deliberately or negligently damage them,” a senior Navy official told The Sunday Morning.

Cost of disruptions to UDCs

Sri Lanka is no stranger to the dangers posed to the submarine data cables which link the island to the world.

In 2004, Sri Lanka suffered its first major internet and international communications outage, which lasted a few days when the Indian-flagged merchant vessel State of Nagaland dragged its anchor over the SEA-ME-WE3 data cable that supplied linkages to SLT.

The incident occurred in a coastal sea area which has restrictions put in place to stop ships from deploying anchor. SLT later took the vessel owners to court seeking $ 5 million as compensation for damages. The cost to the economy from the outage has not been calculated.

More recently, with growing tensions between Russia, Europe, and the US, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the European Union have become concerned about the safety and security of undersea cables.

In 2021, 4.3 kilometres of an undersea cable on the sea bed off the north Norwegian coast was severed and vanished without a trace, causing alarm and disruption to internet and e-commerce services.

Later, in September 2022, damage to the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea carrying natural gas to energy-hungry Europe was quickly labelled an act of sabotage by some security experts.

There are growing concerns that UDCs may become a tool for ‘hybrid warfare’ and intimidation of states that are largely dependent on them for their survival. Sri Lanka should be well aware of the risks and vulnerabilities it faces and act quickly.

Concerns over sovereign control

Meanwhile, senior Government officials The Sunday Morning spoke to questioned if the rush to divest State-owned shares of the telco SLT-Mobitel may leave Sri Lanka in a vulnerable position as the company controls and services many UDCs which service Sri Lanka. The SLT leadership was not available for comment on the matter.

However, when contacted on the impact of sale of SLT-Mobitel’s shares, State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) Restructuring Unit Head  HeadSuresh Shah pointed out that Government oversight could be managed through regulations.

With SLT-Mobitel, the Government’s control is 49%, so the majority control is already out of its hands. But the GGovernment has the ability to regulate,” Shah added