Strait of Hormuz Subsea Cables and the Gulf’s Digital Chokepoint

The Strait of Hormuz is best known as an energy and shipping corridor. It is also an important route for the subsea fibre-optic cables that connect Gulf countries to international networks. If several cables fail and alternative routes cannot carry enough traffic, a regional connectivity problem can interrupt the services your organisation depends on, from cloud applications and payments to supplier operations.

The practical question for risk managers is how long critical services can operate on reduced connectivity. Answering it means tracing the networks those services depend on, checking what backup capacity is actually available and testing the decisions teams would face during a prolonged disruption.

Why the Strait of Hormuz is a digital chokepoint

A digital chokepoint is a geographic corridor where multiple communications routes converge, exposing them to a shared disruption. In the Strait of Hormuz, several subsea cable systems use the same passage. A fault affecting one cable can often be absorbed by rerouting traffic. When several routes are affected, the outcome depends on whether alternative subsea or overland routes are available and have enough spare capacity.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimates that subsea cables carry more than 99% of international data exchange globally. The Strait of Hormuz accounts for less than 1% of global international bandwidth, according to TeleGeography analysis cited by the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) in May 2026. Even with that small global share, an outage can have a significant regional impact where providers and critical services rely on the same corridor. 

How subsea cable disruption can happen

The ICPC attributes around 70–80% of cable faults worldwide to accidental human activity, including commercial fishing and ships’ anchors. A single incident can affect several routes. In 2012, for example, a vessel’s anchor damaged three subsea cables in the Red Sea. Risk teams can also model deliberate damage and consider how security conditions might affect repairs. 

Recovery depends on how quickly a specialist vessel can reach the fault and begin work. Vessel availability, permits, weather and safe access can all affect the schedule. The period of reduced connectivity may therefore extend well beyond the time needed to carry out the repair. 

How a prolonged outage can affect your organisation

Two telecom contracts can still leave an organisation exposed to one physical failure if both providers use the same cable corridor, landing station or onward terrestrial route. The same dependency can extend to cloud providers and outsourced services. Ask providers where routes are physically independent and how much usable capacity they can supply during a wider outage.

Shared dependencies and decisions about which services to prioritise under pressure are covered in GRC Academy’s Operational Resilience Beyond Compliance training course.

What a multi-week connectivity disruption could look like

Use this scenario to test your response. Assume that multiple cable faults reduce available bandwidth and that repairs have yet to begin by the third week.

• First hours. Traffic shifts to surviving routes. Some services remain available but slow down or time out. Network teams verify how much capacity remains, while business owners decide which services need priority.
• First week. Intermittent connectivity may delay payment processing, supplier handovers and customer support. Teams test manual workarounds, track backlogs and check whether suppliers can meet minimum service levels.
• Third week. If repair timing remains uncertain, leadership decides which services can continue at reduced capacity, when to fund additional connectivity and how to communicate with customers and relevant stakeholders.

Five steps risk managers can take now

1. Map connectivity to critical services. Start with the business services you need to keep running. For each one, record its telecom providers, cloud regions, key suppliers and any known shared network routes. Assign an owner to verify gaps in the map.
2. Record a specific scenario in the risk register. For example, simultaneous faults on multiple Strait of Hormuz subsea cables reduce available bandwidth for two weeks, delaying access to cloud systems and payment services. Record the services exposed, existing controls, accountable owner and thresholds for escalation. GRC Academy covers scenario planning, risk registers and risk tolerance in its Advanced Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) training course.
3. Verify physical route diversity. Ask providers whether primary and backup services share a cable system, landing station or terrestrial route. Request evidence of physical separation and ask how much backup bandwidth is reserved, how failover works and when it was last tested.
4. Test continuity on reduced bandwidth. Run an exercise with a multi-week disruption, limited backup capacity and at least one key supplier affected. Agree on the minimum service each team must maintain and test whether the workarounds can support it. GRC Academy covers business impact analysis, recovery objectives and continuity exercises in its Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) & Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) training course.
5. Brief the board on the decisions it may need to make. Show which services would exceed their disruption tolerances, what additional capacity would cost and which risks would remain after mitigation. Give leadership clear triggers for approving contingency spending or switching to reduced operations.

Key takeaway

Test how long critical services can operate when several cable routes are unavailable and the remaining routes have limited capacity. Use the result to set recovery priorities, assign ownership and agree when to escalate.

Frequently asked questions

• What is a subsea cable?

A subsea telecommunications cable is a fibre-optic cable laid on or beneath the seabed. It carries data between landing stations and supports international internet access, cloud services, communications and financial transactions.

• Why is the Strait of Hormuz a digital chokepoint?

Several subsea cables that connect Gulf countries to international networks pass through the strait. If multiple routes are disrupted, the impact depends on how much traffic geographically separate subsea and overland routes can carry. 

• What causes most subsea cable faults?

Most faults globally are associated with accidental human activity, especially fishing gear and ships’ anchors. Risk assessments can also consider deliberate damage and faults that affect several cables in the same corridor. 

• How long can a subsea cable outage last?

The duration depends on whether traffic can be rerouted and how quickly repairs can start. Permits, specialist vessel availability and access to the site can push cable restoration into weeks or longer, even when some services recover sooner over alternative routes. 

• Which risk frameworks apply to subsea cable disruption?

ISO 31000 provides risk management guidance, and COSO ERM connects risk oversight to strategy and performance. ISO 22301 sets requirements for a business continuity management system, while ISO/IEC 27031 provides guidance on technology readiness for business continuity.