Microsoft Azure services disrupted by Red Sea cable cuts

Microsoft’s Azure cloud services have been disrupted by undersea cable cuts in the Red Sea, the US tech giant says.

Users of Azure – one of the world’s leading cloud computing platforms – would experience delays because of problems with internet traffic moving through the Middle East, the company said.

Microsoft did not explain what might have caused the damage to the undersea cables, but added that it had been able to rerouted traffic through other paths.

Over the weekend, there were reports suggesting that undersea cable cuts had affected the United Arab Emirates and some countries in Asia.

Cables laid on the ocean floor transmit data between continents and are often described as the backbone of the internet.

An update posted on the Microsoft website on Saturday said that Azure traffic going through the Middle East “may experience increased latency due to undersea fibre cuts in the Red Sea”.

It stressed that traffic “that does not traverse through the Middle East is not impacted”.

On Saturday, NetBlocks, an organisation that monitors internet access, said a series of undersea cable cuts in the Red Sea had affected internet services in several countries, including India and Pakistan.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Company said in a post on X that the cuts occurred in waters near the Saudi city of Jeddah and warned that internet services could be affected during peak hours.

Undersea cables can be damaged by anchors dropped by ships, but have also, in the past, been deliberately targeted.

In February 2024, several communications cables in the Red Sea were cut, affecting internet traffic between Asia and Europe.

The incident happened about a month after Yemen’s internationally recognised government warned that the Iran-backed Houthi movement might sabotage the cables and attack ships on the Red Sea. The Houthis denied that they had targeted cables.

In the Baltic Sea, a series of undersea cables and gas pipelines have been damaged in suspected attacks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Earlier this year, Swedish authorities seized a ship suspected of damaging a cable running under the Baltic Sea to Latvia. Prosecutors said an initial investigation pointed to sabotage.