Iran warns of possible attacks on data centers and cables in the region — Al Jazeera
Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei said that communications cables, data centers and artificial intelligence facilities in the region could come under attack in the event of a new armed conflict between Iran and the United States. Al Jazeera reports.
Concerns over the security of digital infrastructure have intensified amid fighting in Yemen near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Cables carrying a significant share of internet traffic between Europe and Asia pass through this narrow maritime passage. According to research company TeleGeography, cables laid on the floor of the Red Sea provide more than 90% of data transmission capacity between the two regions.
Vulnerability of cables and data centers
Undersea cables can be damaged by ship anchors or as a result of sabotage, while their repair in a combat zone requires permits and security guarantees. Data centers that support banking applications and cloud services are also stationary targets. Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer in security studies at King's College London, noted that it is not necessary to destroy servers to disable a facility: data centers depend on uninterrupted power supply, cooling and telecommunications.
In March, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps published a list of potential targets that included Google, Microsoft and Oracle cloud infrastructure in Israel and several Persian Gulf states. In the same month, in a Telegram post, the IRGC named 17 US companies as potential targets, including Google, Meta and Apple, as well as Emirati AI company G42.
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Previous incidents and alternative routes
Amazon Web Services said in March that two of its facilities in the UAE were directly hit by drones, while a strike near a facility in Bahrain had a physical impact on infrastructure. In September, the company said it had been unable to restore operations at several sites in Bahrain and one in the UAE.
In February 2024, three cables were damaged in the Red Sea, most likely due to the dragging of an anchor by the cargo ship Rubymar, which had been disabled by a Houthi missile. In September 2025, two more cables were cut near Jeddah, slowing internet access in the Middle East and South Asia; the cause of the incident was not established.
In September, Iraq signed an agreement with Qatar's Ooredoo on the transit of data from Gulf countries to Europe through its territory. Microsoft also announced plans to invest more than $400 million in subsea and terrestrial connectivity in the Middle East by 2030.
