The world's data and communications are carried across oceans by great bundles of subsea fiber-optic cables — with their high strategic value making them potential targets for attack.

Recently, Sweden and Finland have opened investigations into potential "sabotage" against cables damaged on Sunday and Monday in the Baltic Sea.

Undersea cables ferry data of all kinds between the continents, "transmitting everything from streaming videos and financial transactions to diplomatic communications and essential intelligence" according to a recent report from the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).