Report ranks Google and Meta Pacific cables among highest sabotage risks

A report commissioned by the China Strategic Risks Institute ranked several trans-Pacific cable projects linked to Google, Meta and Verizon among the routes most vulnerable to sabotage.

Its assessment covered 32 U.S. trans-Pacific cable systems and compared their exposure using route segments and selected indicators; the resulting scores are rankings, not probabilities that an attack will occur. The report placed Trans-Pacific Express first, with 100.0 points, followed by E2A at 96.7. TPU scored 85.0 and ranked third, while ORCA received 82.2 and ranked fifth.

Google owns TPU, Meta owns ORCA, and Verizon co-owns E2A with firms in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. The projects are described as under development, and the assessment’s scope includes the broader set of U.S. trans-Pacific systems rather than only those three projects.

To produce the rankings, the assessment split cable routes into 20-kilometer segments, applied selected indicators to those segments and combined the segment scores for each system. It cautioned that the totals measure comparative exposure under its method, not the chance of a particular cable being attacked.

The distinction matters: a high rank signals a relative position in the index, not a forecast of an attack. The report said a single outage could strain capacity on direct U.S. links to Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines. That is the concrete consequence it identifies for the infrastructure, tying a cable disruption to pressure on available capacity along those links.

It does not quantify the amount of capacity that would be lost or describe a specific outage scenario. Separately, the Center for Strategic and International Studies reported in October 2026 that China had deployed research vessels equipped with seabed-mapping technology near trans-Pacific cables.

The China Strategic Risks Institute assessment framed its rankings around sabotage vulnerability and what it called China’s gray zone tactics; the vessel activity is a separate report, not a finding that any cable was sabotaged or that the ships caused damage.

A separate analysis cited by Ars Technica adds a different geographic example: The Telegraph reported on October 21 that its review identified more than 500 incidents involving Russian fishing boats loitering near cables connecting the UK to the rest of the world. Some boats followed cable routes, according to that account.

This reporting concerns UK-linked infrastructure and Russian fishing vessels, rather than the Pacific cable rankings or the Chinese research vessels. Taken together, the assessment highlights relative exposure across U.S. trans-Pacific cable systems, while the cited reporting describes vessel activity near cables in both the Pacific and waters connected to the UK.

The documented next question is how cable operators and relevant authorities assess the ranking’s specific outage concern: possible strain on direct U.S. The sources do not identify a planned decision or action by those parties.