Backhaul communications cables concerned with the Germany Railway (Deutsche Bahn, DB) radio system, safety-critical equipment without which modern, tightly timetabled and high speed trains cannot safely operate, were "willfully and intentionally severed" on Saturday morning by people with "very precise knowledge of the railway’s radio system." The two cables damaged were 340 miles apart from each other and cut simultaneously.
The impact of the sabotage on the fibre-optic cables was that trains both regional and long-distance were disrupted for several hours over the weekend. While the immediate disruption may be felt to be small, the attack nevertheless has been front-page news in Germany since, given the way in which it seriously underlines the vulnerability of critical national infrastructure. Just weeks before, the Nord Stream and Nord Stream Two undersea gas pipelines were — if reports are to be believes — blown up, severing a major route of importing energy for Germany.
As Die Zeit notes, German general Carsten Breuer warns in the aftermath of the railway cable cutting that much infrastructure — the networks that transmit power and data and underpin modern life not least among them — are extremely vulnerable to attack. He told the German press: "Every substation, every power plant, every pipeline can be attacked, can be a possible target... This is not about an enemy army with soldiers and tanks attacking our country [but] pinpricks in the population that are intended to stir up uncertainty and shake confidence in our state".
