War hits the internet

TL;DR Two major “data chokepoints” — the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz — are under simultaneous stress, raising the risk of slower, more expensive routing for international traffic.  Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have issued explicit warnings that the Strait of Hormuz is closed and threatened ships attempting passage.  AWS says drone strikes physically damaged facilities in the UAE and Bahrain, disrupting cloud services and forcing some customers to rely on failovers and reroutes.  The story isn’t “the internet will shut down.” It’s “the internet will get worse.” The internet is built to survive cable cuts. Traffic can reroute across alternate paths, and cloud providers run redundant systems. That’s why a global “off switch” is unlikely even in a serious escalation. But this moment is still dangerous in a very practical way: when multiple high-capacity routes are stressed at the same time, the backup routes get crowded. The outcome isn’t darkness — it’s congestion: higher latency, more packet loss, and higher transit costs that can show up as slower apps, degraded video calls, and cloud performance issues.  Why the Red Sea matters (and why everyone keeps citing the “17 cables” number) The Red Sea is one of the world’s densest subsea corridors for data moving between Europe, Asia, and Africa. Reporting notes 17 submarine cables pass through it, carrying a large share of intercontinental traffic. When cables here are damaged or repair activity becomes difficult, networks often reroute around longer paths — which can add time and pressure.  Even in normal times, a few cuts can be enough to raise latency for certain routes because operators move traffic onto whatever capacity remains available. Why Hormuz is different: it’s not just about cables — it’s about access The Strait of Hormuz is a critical maritime choke point. For digital infrastructure, it’s one of the gateways for cables serving Gulf states and for maintenance access to parts of th