Given the worldwide rise in threats to energy and other underwater industries’ infrastructure such as offshore installations, pipelines, and cables, many countries, especially in Europe, have been upping their security ante to prevent further attacks. To this end, a project, dedicated to enhancing maritime situational awareness around critical subsea infrastructures with advanced big data and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, has received a €2.4 million federal grant from Germany. Close collaboration has been pinpointed as a key to the success of the project and the handling of protection challenges.
The events that took place over the past couple of years have shaken the foundations of the existing world order, eating away at its fabric and leaving many in fear of seeing the freedoms and human rights they currently enjoy being stripped away and supplanted by restrictions, discrimination, and oppression. The ongoing and growing geopolitical tensions also play a part in endangering subsea infrastructure, especially in certain hotspots such as the Middle East , where Iran has vowed to retaliate over Israel ’s alleged assassination of Ismail Haniyeh , the head of Hamas’ political wing, which is not the same as the military wing of the Palestinian nationalist organization, the Qassam Brigades.